HHI 


THE  LIBRARY 


OF 


THE 


OF 


UNIVERSITY 
CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


. 


XX 


LIFE 


O  F 


ANDREW    JACKSON 


IN  THREE  VOLUMES. 


BY    JAMES     PART  ON, 

AUTHOR  OF  "LIFE  OF  AAUON  BUIIR,"  "HUMOROUS  POETBY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE,"  ETO. 


"DESPERATE  COUT.AGK  MAKES  ONE  A  MAJORITY.' 


VOL.    I. 


NEW     YORK: 

MASON"       BROTHERS 

5    &    7    MERGER    STREET 


1860. 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1S59,  by 

MASON     BROTHERS, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


BTKBHOTYPBI>   BY  PRINTKD   BY 

1.    B.    SMITH    &     SON,  0.    A.    ALVORP, 

82   &  84   I5EKKMAN-BT.  15  VANDEWATEB-6T. 


T  O 


NORTH   CAROLINA    AND   TENNESSEE, 


MOTHER    AND    DAUGHTER. 


ONE        O  A  V  E        JACKSON-        BIRTH, 


THE     OTHER      OPPORTUNITY. 


PREFACE. 


"  OH,  hang  General  Jackson !"  exclaimed  Fanny 
Kemble  one  day,  after  dinner,  in  the  cabin  of  the 
ship  that  brought  her  to  the  United  States,  in  the 
summer  of  1832  ;  so  wearied  was  the  vivacious  lady 
with  the  din  of  politics,  and  the  incessant  repetition 
of  the  name  associated  with  all  the  topics  of  that 
stormy  period.  And  what  a  scene  was  that,  when 
the  Old  Man,  victorious  over  Nullification,  and  about 
to  deal  his  finishing  blow  at  the  Bank,  visited  New 
York,  and  was  borne  along  Broadway  on  one  roar 
ing  wave  of  upturned  faces  and  flashing  eyes ;  when 
it  seemed,  said  a  spectator,  as  if  he  had  but  to  speak 
the  word,  and  tjiey  would  have  proclaimed  him  on  the 
spot  a  king ! 

To  this  hour,  the  fame  of  General  Jackson  is  a  cap 
ital  item  in  the  capital  stock  of  a  political  party.  It  is 
one  of  our  standing  jokes,  founded  on  fact,  that  in  some 
of  the  remote  rural  districts,  the  ancient  inhabitants 
still  go  to  the  polls  under  the  impression  that  they  are 
voting  for  old  General  Jackson.  How  many  of  the 
last  eight  Presidents  would  ever  have  taken  up  their 
residence  in  the  White  House,  if  they  had  not  been 
helped  towards  it  through  him  ?  Not  one  ! 


VJ  PREFACE. 

/ 

Of  this  man,  who  made  such  a  stir  in  the  world,  who 
rendered  to  his  country  services  which  it  will  never 
cease  to  value,  whose  name  is  still  a  power  among  us, 
there  has  not  yet  appeared  a  biography  which  is  both 
complete  and  credible.  There  is  none  which  its  own 
author  thinks,  or  would  claim,  to  be  adequate  to  the 
subject.  Hence  these  volumes,  which  attempt  to  sup 
ply  the  deficiency. 

The  value  of  a  work  of  this  kind  depends,  of  course, 
wholly  upon  its  credibility ;  and  this  is  particularly  the 
case  with  one  which,  besides  containing  much  that  is 
new,  contains  also  much  that  is  unexpected.  A  brief 
account  of  the  author's  labors  will,  perhaps,  be  the  best 
way  of  enabling  the  reader  to  judge  how  far  he  may 
'  abandon  himself  to  the  narrative  before  him. 

To  collect  and  examine  all  that  has  been  previously 
written  on  his  subject,  is  obviously  the  first  duty  of 
every  author.  After  a  few  months'  search  among  the  li 
braries,  bookstores,  and  bookstalls,  there  had  risen  round 
me  those  mountains  of  lies  and  trash  (with  some  gems 
of  truth  and  good  sense  shining  from  the  midst  there 
of,)  which  are  described  in  other  preliminary  pages  of 
this  volume.  The  greater  part  of  these  publications 
are  what  we  term  "  Campaign  literature,"  a  peculiar 
product  of  the  United  States  ;  less  discreditable  to  us, 
perhaps,  than  the  aids  to  an  enlightened  use  of  the 
franchise  employed  elsewhere — beer,  bribes,  ribbons, 
the  honeyed  talk  of  ladies,  and  such  rougher  arguments 
as  unclean  missives  and  broken  heads.  Nevertheless, 
campaign  literature  is  dreadful  stuff,  particularly  when 
it  is  cold.  It  can  not  be  trusted  at  all.  These  cam. 


PREFACE.  Vii 

paign  Lives  of  General  Jackson,  for  example,  either 
pervert  or  suppress  every  act  and  trait  of  his,  the 
frank  statement  of  which  could  produce  an  unfav 
orable  effect  upon  the  mind  of  a  single  voter.  Eat 
on's  work,  from  which  the  rest  are  chiefly  derived,  does 
not  mention  the  name  of  Aaron  Burr,  says  nothing  of 
the  Benton  affray,  nor  the  Dickinson  duel.  Yet  Eaton 
was  one  of  the  most  honest  of  all  the  Jacksonian  writ 
ers  ;  for  it  was  better  to  pass  over  these  most  influen 
tial  affairs  in  silence,  than  to  relate  them  with  purposed 
falsehood. 

For  many  months  I  was  immersed  in  this  unique, 
bewildering  collection,  reading  endless  newspapers, 
pamphlets,  books,  without  arriving  at  any  conclusion 
whatever.  If  any  one,  at  the  end  of  a  year  even,  had 
asked  what  I  had  yet  discovered  respecting  General 
Jackson,  I  might  have  answered  thus  :  "  Andrew 
Jackson,  I  am  given  to  understand,  was  a  patriot 
and  a  traitor.  He  was  one  of  the  greatest  of  gen 
erals,  and  wholly  ignorant  of  the  art  of  war.  A 
writer  brilliant,  elegant,  eloquent,  without  being  able 
to  compose  a  correct  sentence,  or  spell  words  of  four 
syllables.  The  first  of  statesmen,  he  never  devised, 
he  never  framed  a  measure.  He  was  the  most  can 
did  of  men,  and  was  capable  of  the  profoundest  dis 
simulation.  A  most  law-defying,  law-obeying  citizen. 
A  stickler  for  discipline,  he  never  hesitated  to  dis 
obey  his  superior.  A  democratic  autocrat.  An  ur 
bane  savage.  An  atrocious  saint."  So  difficult  is  it 
to  attain  information  respecting  a  man  whom  two 
thirds  of  his  fellow-citizens  deified,  and  the  other 


PREFACE. 

third    vilified,    for   the    space    of    twelve    years    or 
more. 

In  this  condition  of  doubt,  I  set  out  on  a  tour  of  the 
southern  and  south-western  States,  in  search  of  knowl 
edge.  At  Washington  I  conversed  with  politicians  of 
the  last  generation,  who  have  now  no  longer  an  inter 
est  in  concealing  the  truth.  I  visited  North  Carolina, 
where  General  Jackson  was  born,  and  where  he  stud 
ied  law  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  ;  South  Carolina, 
where  he  grew  from  infancy  into  manhood ;  Tennessee, 
where  he  lived  so  long  and  so  happily  ;  Alabama,  the 
scene  of  his  early  exploits  ;  and  other  States,  a  third 
of  the  Union  in  all  ;  receiving  in  each  the  recollections 
of  men  and  women,  bond  and  free,  who  knew  him  well, 
knew  him  at  all  periods  of  his  life,  lived  near  him,  and 
with  him,  served  him  and  were  served  by  him.  One 
woman  still  lingers  in  extreme  old  age,  who  thinks  she 
remembers  him  an  infant  in  his  mother's  arms.  With 
her  I  conversed  ;  as  also  with  the  gentleman  who 
caught  the  hero's  head  when  it  fell  forward  in  death. 
I  listened,  also,  to  many  who  were  always  opposed  to 
the  man,  and  still  like  him  not.  Manuscript  letters  of 
the  General's  in  great  numbers  were  freely  given  me 
to  copy,  and  other  manuscripts  only  less  valuable  than 
these.  Old  files  of  Tennessee  newspapers  carne  to 
light,  that  were  full  of  Jackson  and  his  early  wild  ca 
reer.  It  seemed  sometimes  in  Nashville  as  if  the  city 
had  formed  itself  into  a  Committee  of  the  Whole,  for 
the  purpose  of  overwhelming  the  stranger  with  papers, 
reminiscences,  and  hospitality. 


PREFACE.  IX 

And  thus  it  was  that  contradictions  were  recon 
ciled,  that  mysteries  were  revealed,  and  that  the 
truth  was  made  apparent. 

It  would  be  a  pleasure  to  record  here  the  names  of 
all  those  to  whom  the  readers  of  these  volumes  are  in 
debted  for  whatever  renders  them  of  any  value.  But 
the  list  could  not  be  complete.  Ladies  object  to  the 
parade  of  their  names  in  print.  Some  gentlemen  think, 
with  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  that  the  truth  is  some 
thing  dangerous  to  tell,  and  may  involve  in  harm  even 
those  who  are  remotely  connected  with  the  telling  of 
it.  "  I  should  like  much  to  tell  the  truth,"  said  the 
Duke,  when  meditating  the  writing  of  his  own  me 
moirs,  "  but  if  I  did,  I  should  be  torn  in  pieces."  1 
believe  his  Grace  underrated  the  quality  of  his  own 
countrymen  ;  as  those  Americans  do  theirs,  who 
think  that  what  the  people  of  the  United  States 
want  is  the  dull,  respectable,  half-truth,  instead  of 
the  TRUTH.  Some  do,  perhaps.  The  majority  want 
the  Life  of  General  Jackson  written,  as  he  himself, 
in  one  of  the  last  sentences  he  ever  penned,  said  he 
wished  it  written — with  simple  fidelity. 

Some  years  ago,  a  young  English  clergyman,  fresh 
from  the  ecclesiastical  dainties  of  Oxford,  was  ap 
pointed  to  one  of  the  most  rural  of  parishes,  in  .& 
county  that  had  as  yet  only  heard  of  Dr.  Pusey.  The 
parish  church  was  a  picture.  A  fine,  solid,  old  struc 
ture  of  the  middle  ages  ;  with  its  ancient  belfry, 
and  climbing  ivy,  and  cawing  rooks,  and  niche  for  holy 
water,  and  venerable  graveyard,  and  all  the  other  an 
tiquities  most  dear  in  the  eyes  of  a  clerical  Oxonian  of 


X  PREFACE. 

that  day.  But  the  interior  of  the  church  was  a  sad 
disappointment,  and  to  the  young  priest  a  perpet 
ual  sorrow.  There  were  not  wanting  indications 
that  it  had  been  originally  finished  in  a  costly  and 
superior  manner.  There  were  pillars,  small  and 
large ;  there  was  groining  in  the  roof ;  there  were 
tombs  and  monuments,  and  some  dim  remains  of  an 
cient  carving.  But  the  whole  was  covered  with 
what  appeared  to  be  the  dust  of  centuries,  hard 
ened  into  a  dark  and  dismal  crust. 

How  to  restore  the  ancient  edifice  !  How  to  make 
the  interior  correspond  with  the  picturesque  exterior  ! 

The  church- war  dens,  the  parish-clerk,  the  sexton, 
all  concurred  in  opinion  on  the  subject ;  and  that  opin 
ion  was — WHITEWASH  !  With  horror  the  fastidious  pas 
tor  rejected  the  suggestion.  But  it  led  him  to  reflec 
tion,  and  reflection  to  inspection,  and  inspection  to 
experiment,  and  experiment  to  discovery.  The  old 
church,  he  found,  had  been  for  centuries  subject 
periodically  to  the  sacrilege  of  whitewashing.  The 
dismal  crust  with  which  the  interior  was  covered 
was  nothing  more  than  the  whitewash  of  ages.  The 
proper  way,  then,  to  restore  the  edifice,  to  its  orig 
inal  character,  was  to  remove  with  careful  nand 
this  odious  accumulation  from  every  part  of  the  sur 
face,  and  let  out  its  character  to  the  light. 

It  was  a  labor  of  years.  With  his  own  hands 
the  zealous  clergyman  wrought.  With  his  own  reve 
nues  he  kept  the  work  in  progress.  At  length,  on 
an  Easter  morn,  he  saw  his  task  complete,  and  the 
church  was  as  fresh,  and  clean,  and  characteristic,  as 


PREFACE.  XI 

when,  six  hundred  years  before,  a  Catholic  bishop  had 
chanted  its  consecration.  What  marvels  were  re 
vealed  !  Marble  pillars,  tombs  elaborately  wrought 
and  brilliantly  colored,  oaken  carvings,  and  finely 
finished  walls  of  yellow  stone. 

But  yet  the  church  was  not  a  perfect  church.  The 
whitewash  which  had  imprisoned  many  beauties,  had 
concealed  some  flaws — some  serious,  nay,  repulsive  and 
shocking  flaws.  It  was  still  an  old  church,  a  very  old 
church,  which  the  modern  eye  had  to  learn  to  allow 
for,  and  to  like;  and  some  there  were  in  the  parish 
who,  after  all,  would  have  preferred  the  glare  and 
monotonous  perfection  of  a  new  and  thick  coat  of 
whitewash.  But  the  greater  number  saw  with  pleas 
ure  that  now  their  old  church,  whatever  its  defects 
and  faults,  was  honest,  curious,  interesting,  real.  Not 
a  model  to  copy,  but  a  specimen  to  study. 


LIST   OF    PUBLICATIONS 

CONTAINING     INFORMATION    RESPECTING    ANDREW     JACKSON,    HIS 
TIMES   AND   CONTEMPORARIES. 


The  Life  of  Andrew  Jackson,  Major  General 
in  the  service  of  the  United  States :  compris 
ing  a  history  of  the  War  in  the  South,  from 
the  commencement  of  the  Creek  Campaign 
to  the  termination  of  hostilities  before  New 
Orleans.  By  John  Henry  Eaton,  Senator  of 
the  United  States.  Philadelphia,  1824.  8vo. 
463  pp. 

[Published  originally  about  1818.  The  basis 
of  all  the  popular  lives  of  Jackson ;  valuable 
for  its  full  details  of  the  Creek  War.  Not  de 
signedly  false,  but  necessarily  so,  because 
written  on  the  principle  of  omitting  to  men 
tion  every  act  and  trait  of  its  subject  not  cal 
culated  to  win  general  approval.  The  author 
was  a  neighbor  and  friend  of  General  Jackson, 
afterwards  a  member  of  his  cabinet] 

Memoirs  of  General  Andrew  Jackson,  to 
gether  with  the  Letter  of  Mr.  Secretary  Adams, 
in  vindication  of  the  execution  of  Arbuthnot 
and  Ambrister,  and  the  other  public  acts  of 
General  Jackson,  in  Florida.  Bridgeton,  N.  J., 
1824.  8vo.  40pp. 

[A  pamphlet  of  the  presidential  campaign 
of  1824.] 

The  Life  of  Major  General  Andrew  Jackson : 
comprising  a  history  of  the  War  in  the  South, 
from  the  commencement  of  the  Creek  Cam 
paign  to  the  termination  of  hostilities  before 
New  Orleans.  Addenda:  containing  a  brief 
history  of  the  Seminole  War  and  Cession  and 
Government  of  Florida.  By  John  Henry 
Eaton,  Senator  of  the  United  States  Congress. 
Philadelphia,  1828.  12mo.  335pp. 

[The  original  work  of  Major  Eaton,  with 
some  additional  pages,  narrating  such  of  the 
incidents  of  the  Seminole  War  as  the  author 
thought  proper.] 

Civil  and  Military  History  of  Andrew  Jack 
son,  late  Major  General  in  the  Army  of  the 
United  States,  and  Commander-in-Chief  of 
the  Southern  Division.  By  an  American 
Officer.  New  York,  1825.  12rno.  359. 

[Contains  a  nearly  complete  set  of  General 
Jackson's  military  dispatches.] 

A  concise  Narrative  of  General  Jackson's 
First  Invasion  of  Florida,  and  of  his  immortal 
Defense  of  New  Orleans;  with  Remarks. 
Second  edition,  with  Additions,  by  Aristides. 
New  York,  1827.  12mo.  24  pp. 

[A  campaign  pamphlet  of  the  presidential 
election  of  1828.] 

Memoirs  of  Andrew  Jackson,  late  Major- 
General  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Southern  Division  of  the  Army  of  the  United 
States.  Compiled  by  a  Citizen  of  Massa 
chusetts.  Boston,  1828.  12mo.  270  pp. 


[A  reproduction  of  Eaton,  with  some  errors 

f  Eaton  much  exaggerated.] 

A  History  of  the  Life  and  Public  Services 
of  Major  General  Andrew  Jackson.  Impar 
tially  compiled  from  the  most  authentic 
sources.  1S2S.  8vo.  37  pp. 

[An  Adams1  pamphlet  of  the  presidential 
campaign  of  1828.  An  ingenious  perversion.] 

An  Impartial  and  True  History  of  the  Life 
and  Services  of  Major  General  Andrew  Jack 
son.  1828.  12mo.  32  pp. 

[Adverse  to  General  Jackson.  Ingeniously 
and  laboriously  done.] 

Reminiscences;  or  an  Extract  from  the 
Catalogue  of  General  Jackson's  "Juvenile 
Indiscretions,"  between  the  ages  of  Twenty- 
three  and  Sixty.  Nashville  and  New  York, 
1828.  8vo.  8  pp. 

[A  list  of  General  Jackson's  alleged  quar 
rels,  fights,  affrays,  and  duels,  numbered  from 
one  to  fourteen.] 

The  Jackson  Wreath,  or  National  Souvenir; 
containing  a  Biographical  Sketch  of  General 
Jackson  until  1819.  By  Robert  Walsh,  Jr., 
Esq. ;  with  a  continuation  until  the  present 
day,  embracing  a  view  of  the  recent  political 
struggle.  By  Doctor  James  M'Henry.  Phila 
delphia,  1829.  8vo.  88pp. 

[A  sort  of  Jacksonian  Gift-Book — a  catch 
penny  enterprise.] 

Biography  of  Andrew  Jackson,  President 
of  the  United  States,  formerly  Major  General 
in  the  Army  of  the  United  States.  By  Philo 
A.  Goodwin,  Esq.  Hartford,  1832.  12mo. 
421  pp. 

[A  "Campaign"  Life,  done  as  well  as  a 
thing  of  the  kind  can  be.] 

Life  of  Andrew  Jackson,  President  of  the 
United  States  of  America.  By  William  Cob- 
bett,  M.  P.  for  Oldham.  New  York,  1834. 
18mo.  196  pp. 

[Taken  verbatim  from  Eaton  ;  with  the  ad- 

'  dition  of  a  few  pages  of  matter  designed  for 

i  political  effect  in  England.    This  is  the  work, 

!  in  the  dedication  of  which  to  the  people  of 

Ireland,  Mr.  Cobbett  styles  General  Jackson 

"  the  bravest  and  greatest  man  now  living  in 

this  world,  or  that  has  ever   lived   in   this 

world,  as  far  as  my  knowledge  extends."] 

Life  of  Andrew  Jackson,  Private,  Military, 
and  Civil,  with  Illustrations.  By  Amos  Ken 
dall.  New  York,  1844.  8vo.  To  be  com 
pleted  in  fifteen  numbers. 
j  [Of  this  work  seven  numbers  appeared, 
!  bringing  the  life  down  nearly  to  the  end  ot 
!  the  Creek  War.  Discontinued  on  account  of 


XIV 


LIST      OF      PUBLICATIONS. 


the  expansion  of  the  telegraphic  business  with 
which  the  author  became  connected  at  an 
early  day.] 

A  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  General  Andrew 
Jackson,  and  of  the  Battle  of  New  Orleans, 
with  an  engraving  of  the  Battle-ground,  writ 
ten  for  the  Knickerbocker  Magazine.  New 
York,  1845.  8vo.  16  pp. 

[Written  on  the  occasion  of  General  Jack 
son's  death.] 

Memoirs  of  General  Andrew  Jackson, 
Seventh  President  of  the  United  States:  con 
taining  a  full  account  of  his  Indian  campaigns 
and  defense  of  New  Orleans ;  and  numerous 
anecdotes  illustrative  of  his  character  ;  to 
gether  with  his  Veto  of  the  Bank  Bill,  Proc 
lamation  to  the  Nulliflers,  Farewell  Address, 
etc.,  etc.  To  which  is  added  the  Eulogy  of 
Hon.  George  Bancroft,  delivered  at  Washing 
ton,  D.  C.  "  Compiled  by  a  Citizen  of  West 
ern  New  York.  Auburn,  1845.  12ino. 

[A  brief  outline,  founded  on  Eaton.] 

Monument  to  the  memory  of  General  An 
drew  Jackson :  containing  Twenty-five  Eu 
logies  and  Sermons  delivered  on  the  occasion 
Of  Ms  Death.  To  which  is  added  an  Appen 
dix,  containing  General  Jackson's  Procla 
mation,  his  Farewell  Address,  and  a  certified 
copy  of  his  Last  Will.  The  whole  preceded 
by  a  short  sketch  of  his  life.  Compiled  by  B. 
M.  Dusenbery.  Philadelphia,  1846. 

[A  volume  of  indiscriminate  eulogies,  most 
ly  by  interested  politicians,  valueless,  except 
as  showing  the  popular  idea  of  Jackson's  life 
and  character.] 

Pictorial  Life  of  Andrew  Jackson.  By  John 
Frost,  LL.  D.  Philadelphia,  1847.  8vo. 
560  pp. 

[Compiled  chiefly  from  Eaton  and  other 
easily  accessible  sources.  Highly  eulogistic.] 

Jackson  and  the.  Generals  of  the  War  of 
1812.  By  John  S.  Jenkins,  A.  M.  Philadel 
phia,  1854.  12mo.  407  pp. 

[Short  Lives  of  Jackson,  Brown,  Gaines, 
Harrison,  Macomb,  Pike,  and  Scott.] 

Addresses  on  the  Presentation  of  the  Sword 
of  General  Andrew  Jackson  to  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States,  delivered  in  the  Senate 
and  House  of  Representatives  February  26, 
1855.  Washington,  1855.  8vo.  40  pp. 

J Contains  Colonel  Thomas  H.  Benton's  nar- 
ve  of  the  events  that  called  General  Jack 
son    to  the  field.     Also  the  correspondence 
accompanying  the  presentation  of  the  Sword 
to  the  nation.] 

Life  and  Public  Services  of  General  Andrew 
Jackson,  Seventh  President  of  the  United 
States;  including  the  most  important  of  his 
State  Papers.  Edited  by  John  S.  Jenkins, 
A.  M. ;  with  the  Eulogy  delivered  at  Wash 
ington  City,  June  21st,  1845,  by  Hon.  George 
Bancroft.  New  York.  1857.  I2mo.  391  pp. 

[A  short,  popular  Life ;  repeats  all  the  old 
errors  ;  adds  a  few  new  incidents.] 

Harpers'  New  Monthly  Magazine  for  Janu 
ary,  1855.  New  York. 

[Article  I.  is  a  glowing  narrative  (beauti 
fully  illustrated)  of  the  life  of  General  Jack 


son,  by  Mr.  B.  J.  Lossing,  author  of  tho 
Field-Book  of  the  Revolution.] 

The  History  and  Antiquities  of  the  County 
of  the  Town  of  Carrickfergus,  from  the  earli 
est  records  to  the  present  time  ;  also  a  Statis 
tical  Survey  of  said  County.  By  Samuel 
M'Skimin.  Belfast,  1829.  Svo.  405  pp. 

[The  history  of  a  county  in  which  the  an 
cestors  of  General  Jackson  lived  for  many 
generations.] 

New  and  Popular  History  of  Ireland,  from 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  Era  to  the  pres 
ent  time.  London,  1851.  3  vols.  in  1.  12mo. 

[Notices  of  Carrickfergus  and  its  early 
sieges.] 

The  Irish  Sketch-Book.  William  M.  Thack 
eray.  New  York,  1847.  Svo. 

[Narrative  of  a  tour  in  Ireland.  The  most 
enlightening  book  of  its  class.  Gives  many 
particulars  of  the  contrast  between  the  North 
of  Ireland  and  the  other  Irish  provinces.] 

Historical  Sketches  of  North  Carolina,  from 
1584  to  1851.  Compiled  from  Original  Rec 
ords,  Official  Documents,  and  Traditional 
Statements ;  with  Biographical  Sketches  of 
her  distinguished  Statesmen,  Jurists,  Law 
yers,  Soldiers,  Divines,  etc.  By  John  II. 
Wheeler,  late  Treasurer  of  the  State.  Phila 
delphia,  1851.  Svo. 

[No  mention  of  young  Jackson,  nor  of  his 
family,  but  details"  some  of  the  events  in 
which  he  and  his  brothers  took  part.] 

Interesting  Revolutionary  Incidents,  and 
Sketches  of  Character,  chiefly  in  the  "Old 
North  State."  By  the  Rev.  E.  W.  Caruthers. 
D.  D.  First  and  Second  Series.  Philadel 
phia,  1856.  12mo. 

[Abounds  in  revolutionary  anecdotes,  illus 
trative  of  the  fierce  partisan  warfare  that 
raged  in  North  Carolina  during  the  latter 
years  of  the  Revolution,  in  the  midst  of  which 
the  boy,  Andrew  Jackson,  grew  to  manhood.] 

The  annals  of  Tennessee  to  the  end  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century;  comprising  its  settle 
ment,  as  The  Watauga  Association,  from  1769 
to  1777  ;  a  part  of  North  Carolina,  from  1777 
to  1784 ;  the  State  of  Franklin,  1734  to  178S  ; 
a  part  of  North  Carolina,  17S3  to  1790 ;  the 
Territory  of  the  United  States,  South  of  the 
Ohio,  from  179  f)  to  1796;  the  State  of  Ten 
nessee  from  1796  to  1800.  By  J.  G.  M.  Ram 
sey,  A.  M.,  M.  D.,  etc.,  etc.  Philadelphia,  1853. 
Svo. 

[Gives  very  full  details  of  the  early  history 
of  Tennessee.  Not  much  of  Jackson.] 

History  of  Middle  Tennessee ;  or  Life  and 
Times  of  General  James  Robertson.  By  A. 
\V.  Putnam,  Esq.,  President  of  the  Tennessee 
Historical  Society.  Nashville,  1S59.  Svo. 
668  pp. 

[A  very  full  account  of  the  settlement  of 
the  Cumberland  Valley.  Contains  curious 
j  information  respecting  General  Jackson's 
j  early  career  in  Tennessee,  and  of  the  courts 
i  at  which  he  practiced.  Frequently  quoted  in 


at  which  he  pr 
!  these  pages.] 


A  Short  Description  of  the   State  of  Ten- 


pt 

j  nessee,  lately  called    the   Territory  of    the 
!  United  States,  South  of  the  River  Ohio.    To 


LIST      OF      PUBLICATIONS. 


XV 


accompany  a  map  of  that  country.  Phila 
delphia,  1796.  18mo.  36  pp. 

[Shows  the  progress  of  Tennessee  to  the 
year  1796.] 

Journal  of  a  Tour  in  the  Unsettled  Parts  of 
North  America,  in  1796  and  1797.  By  the 
inte  Francis  Baily,  F.  R.  S.,  with  a  Memoir 
of  the  Author.  London,  1854.  Svo.  415pp. 

[The  author  traversed  the  entire  length  of 
Tennessee,  and  visited  Nashville  in  1797,  and 
describes  what  he  saw.] 

Sketches  of  History,  Life,  and  Manners  in 
the  West.  By  .Tames  Hall.  2  vols.  12mo. 
Philadelphia,  1835. 

[Gives  some  glimpses  of  pioneer  life.] 

Western  Characters;  or  Types  of  Border 
Life  in  the  Western  States.  By  T.  L.  M'Con- 
nol.  New  York,  1853.  12mo.  378  pp. 

[Eleven  set  essays  on  border  life.] 

Autobiography  of  Peter  Cartwright,  the 
Backwoods  Preacher.  Edited  by  W.  P. 
Strickland.  New  York,  1856.  12mo  525pp. 

[Contains  anecdotes  of  General  Jackson, 
and  of  the  early  days  in  Tennessee.  A  series 
of  astounding  pictures  of  frontier  barbarism.] 

The  Republican  Court.  By  Rufus  W.  Gris- 
wold.  4to.  New  York,  1853. 

[Society  in  Philadelphia,  when  Andrew 
Jackson  was  member  of  Congress  in  1796  and 
1797.] 

Historv  of  the  Discovery  and  Settlement 
of  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi  by  the  three 
great  European  Powers,  Spain,  France  and 
Great  Britain,  and  the  subsequent  Occupa 
tion,  Settlement  and  Extension  of  Civil  Gov 
ernment  by  the  United  States  until  the  year 
1S46.  By  John  W.  Monette,  M.  D.  2  vols. 
Svo.  New  York,  1846. 

[Contains  account  of  the  Burr  panic,  Creek 
War,  New  Orleans  campaigns  and  first  inva 
sions  of  Florida.  Fullest  on  the  Burr  panic.] 

Sketches  and  Eccentricities  of  Colonel  Da 
vid  Crockett,  of  West  Tennessee.  New  York, 
1347.  12mo.  209  pp. 

[Crockett  fought  in  some  of  the  tattles  of 
the  Creek  War,  and  served  in  the  early  legis 
lature  of  Tennessee.] 

A  Picture  of  a  Republican  Magistrate  of  the 
New  School;  being  a  full-length  likeness  of 
his  Excellency,  Thomas  Jefferson,  President 
of  the  United  States.  To  which  is  added  a 
short  Criticism  of  the  Characters  and  Preten 
sions  of  Mr.  Madison,  Mr.  Clinton  and  Mr. 
Pinkney.  By  John  Thierry  Danvers,  of 
Virginia.  New  York,  1808.  8vo.  96pp. 

[A  spirited  and  severe  review  of  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  administration,  including  a  defense  of 
Aaron  Burr.  Endeavors  to  show  that  Burr 
was  ruined  by  Jefferson  for  political  and  per 
sonal  reasons"  A  curious  relic  of  an  old  con 
troversy.] 

Life  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  By  Henry  S. 
Randall,  LL.D.  3  vols  Svo.  New  York, 
Derby  &  Jackson,  1858. 

[Mr.  Jefferson's  opinion  of  General  Jack 
BOH,  and  other  matters.] 


Life  of  Tecumseh  and  of  his  Brother,  the 
Prophet,  with  a  historical  Sketch  of  the 
Shawnee  Indians.  By  Benjamin  Drake. 
Cincinnati,  1850.  12ino.  235  pp. 

[Important,  because  but  for  the  machina 
tions  of  Tecumseh,  Jackson  would  never  have 
become  a  famous  general.  It  was  Tecumseh 
who  gave  Jackson  his  opportunity.] 

History  of  the  Discovery  of  America,  of 
the  Landing  of  our  Forefathers  at  Plymouth, 
and  of  their  most  remarkable  Engagements 
with  the  Indians  in  New  England  from  their 
first  Landing,  in  1620,  untifthe  final  Subju 
gation  of  the  Natives  in  1679.  To  which  is 
annexed  the  Particulars  of  almost  every 
important  Engagement  with  the  Savages 
at  the  Westward  to  the  Present  Day,  in 
cluding  the  Defeats  of  Generals  Brad'dock, 
Harrner  and  St.  Clair  by  the  Indians  at  the 
Westward,  the  Creek  and  Seminole  Wars, 
etc.  By  Henry  Trumbull.  Boston,  1631. 
Svo.  256  pp. 

[A  most  miscellaneous  collection,  which 
happens  to  contain  some  early  accounts  of 
events  preceding  the  Creek  War ;  among 
others,  one  of  the  first  narratives  of  the  mas 
sacre  at  Fort  Minis,  written  near  the  scene.] 

History  of  Alabama,  and,  incidentally,  of 
Georgia  "and  Mississippi  from  the  earliest 
Period  By  Arthur  James  Pickett.  of  Mont 
gomery.  2  vols.  12mo.  Charleston,  1851. 

[Contains  information  respecting  Teenm- 
seh,  a  minute  account  of  the  massacre  at  Fort 
Minis,  and  important  particulars  of  the  Creek 
War.  A  valuable  work.] 

Georgia  Scenes,  Characters  and  Incidents, 
etc.,  in  the  first  Half  Century  of  the  Repub 
lic.  By  a  native  Georgian.  New  York, 
1S5S.  12mo.  214  pp. 

[A  series  of  graphic  sketches  of  wild  south 
ern  life.  One  of  the  most  popular  of  books  in 
the  South.] 

Wild  Western  Scenes.  A  Narrative  of  Ad 
ventures  in  the  western  Wilderness,  wherein 
the  Exploits  of  Daniel  Boone,  the  great  Amer 
ican  Pioneer,  are  particularly  described,  etc. 
etc.  By  J.  B.  Jones.  Philadelphia,  1858. 
12mo.  263  pp. 

[A  novel.] 

The  Life  of  Major  General  William  H.  Har 
rison,  Ninth  President  of  the  United  States. 
by  H.  Montgomery.  Cleveland,  Ohio,  1852. 
12m  o.  465  pp. 

[Some  information  respecting  Tecumseh. 
Account  of  General  Harrison's  resigning  his 
commission;  to  which  commission  Jackson 
succeeded.] 

Biography  and  History  of  the  Indians  of 
North  America  from  its  first  Discovery.  By 
Samuel  G.  Drake.  Boston,  1851.  Svo.  720 
pp. 

[Account  of  the  Creek  Indians.  Brief 
narrative  of  Jackson's  Indian  campaigns.] 

Treaties  between  the  United  States  and 
Indian  Tribes  from  1778  to  1837.  Washing 
ton,  1837.  Svo. 

[Contains  the  treaty  of  Fort  Jackson  and 


XVI 


LIST      OF      PUBLICATIONS. 


otnor  treaties  negotiated  by  General  Jackson 
with  the  Indians.] 

The  Life  of  Sam  Houston.  The  only  au 
thentic  Memoir  of  him  ever  published.  New 
York,  1S55.  12mo.  492  pp. 

[Done  in  anticipation  of  General  Houston's 
running  for  the  presidency  in  1S56.  Better 
than  campaign  lives  generally.  Gives  true 
account  of  young  Houston's  exploits  in 
Creek  War.] 

A  Journal  containing  an  accurate  and  inter 
esting  Account  of  the  Hardships,  Sufferings, 
Battles,  Defeat  and  Captivity  of  those  heroic 
Kentucky  Volunteers  and  Regulars,  com 
manded  by  General  Winchester,  in  the  years 
1S12  and  1813.  Also  two  Narratives  by  Men 
that  were  wounded  in  the  Battles  on  the 
River  Raisin  .and  taken  captive  by  the  In 
dians.  By  Elias  Darnell.  Philadelphia,  1854. 
18mo.  93  pp. 

[A  curious  narrative  of  a  Kentucky  volun 
teer,  showing  the  nature  of  that  service  in  the 
war  of  1812.] 

History  of  the  late  War  between  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain ;  comprising  a  mi 
nute  Account  of  the  various  military  and 
naval  Operations.  By  II.  M.  Brackenridge. 
Philadelphia,  1S46.  12mo.  298  pp. 

[One  of  the  earliest,  and  much  the  best,  of 
the  shorter  histories  of  the  war  of  1812. 
Judge  Brackenridge  was  an  old  acquaintance 
oi  General  Jackson,  and  served  as  his  secre 
tary  and  translator  when  the  general  was 
Governor  of  Florida.] 

Memoirs  of  William  Ellery  Channing,  with 
Extracts  from  his  Correspondence  and  Manu 
scripts.  3  vols.  12tno.  Boston,  1848. 

[Shows  feeling  of  New  England  during 
war  of  1812,  and  the  impression  produced 
there  by  some  of  General  Jackson's  public 
acts.] 

The  Second  War  with  England.  By  J.  T. 
Head  ley,  author  of  "Napoleon  and  his  Mar 
shals,"  etc..  etc.  12mo.  2  vols.  New  York, 
1S54. 

[Presents  a  rapid,  vivid  view  of  the  whole 
war.] 

An  authentic  History  of  the  Second  War 
for  Independence;  comprising  Details  of  the 
military  and  naval  Operations  iroun  the  Com 
mencement  to  the  Close  of  the  recent  War  ; 
enriched  with  numerous  geographical  and 
biographical  Notes.  By  Samuel  K.  Brown. 
18mo.  2  vols.  Auburn,  1815. 

[Valuable  chiefly  for  the  large  number  of 
letters  and  documents  in  the  appendices  and 
notes.] 

The  Crisis  on  the  Origin  and  Consequences 
of  our  political  Dissensions.  To  which  is 
annexed  the  late  Treaty  between  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain.  By  a  Citizen  of 
Vermont.  Albany,  1815.  8vo.  96  pp. 

[A  pamphlet  of  the  war  of  1812.  An  essay 
on  the  evils  supposed  to  result  from  the  con 
flict  of  parties.  A  defense  of  the  Federal 
ists.  Throws  light  upon  the  public  feeling 
during  the  war.] 

The  United  States  and  England ;   being  a 


Reply  to  the  Criticism  on  Inchiquin's  Let 
ters  contained  in  the  Quarterty  Review  for 
January,  1S14.  New  York,  1815.  8vo.  115 
pp. 

[Shows  the  bitterness  of  feeling  between 
the  two  countries  during  the  war  of  1812.] 

Mr.  In-rersoll's  Speech  on  the  Loan    Bills. 
Tuesday,  February  loth,  1814.    8vo.    23  pp. 
[C.  J.  Ingersoll.     Finances  of  War  of  1812.] 

Address  to  the  People  of  the  United  States. 
By  Touchstone.  1812. 

[Anti  war.  Anti  Madison.  Pro  De  Witt 
Clinton.] 

An  Address  of  Members  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  of  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  to  thoir  Constituents  on  the  Subject 
of  the  War  with  Great  Britain.  Raleigh, 
North  Carolina.  1812. 

[A  temperate  anti-war  pamphlet  signed  by 
thirty-four  members  of  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives.] 

An  Exposition  of  the  Conduct  of  France 
toward  America.  Illustrated  by  Cases  de 
cided  in  the  Council  of  Prizes  in  Paris.  By 
Lewis  Goldsmith,  Notary  Public.  New  York, 
1810.  8vo.  99  pp. 

[A  mass  of  facts  and  documents  relating  to 
French  spoliations  on  American  commerce 
during  the  reign  of  Napoleon  I. ;  particularly 
during  the  operation  oi  the  Berlin  and  Milan 
Decrees.  An  important  pamphlet.  Its  ob 
ject  was  to  show  that  France,  not  England, 
was  America's  real  enemy.] 

History  of  the  Second  War  between  the 
United  States  of  America  and  Great  Britain. 
Declared  by  Act  of  Congress  the  18th  of 
June,  1812,  and  concluded  by  peace  the  15th 
of  February,  1815.  By  Charles  J.  Ingersoll. 
4  vols.  Svo.  Philadelphia,  1852. 

[A  work  of  considerable  interest  and  power, 
but  wrongly  entitled.  It  should  have  been 
called,  Recollections  of  the  public  and  pri 
vate  Life  of  a  Democratic  Member  of  Con 
gress,  or  something  to  that  effect.  One  vol 
ume  is  chiefly  occupied  by  the  author's  con 
versations  with  Joseph  Bonaparte.] 

Historical  Memoir  of  the  War  in  West 
Florida  and  Louisiana  in  1814  and  1815,  with 
an  .Atlas.  By  Mnjor  A.  Lacan'ierc  LaUvr, 
principal  Engineer  in  the  late  Seventh  Mill 
tary  District,  United  States  Army.  Written 
originally  in  French,  and  translated  for  the 
author  by  H.  P.  Nugent,  Esq.  Philadelphia, 
1816.  Svo.  256  pp.  With  79  Appendices. 

[A  work  of  the  highest  value  and  impor 
tance  by  an  officer  of  United  States  Engineers, 
who  served  most  usefully  in  the  defense  of 
New  Orleans.  Contains  nearly  all  the  docu 
ments  relating  to  the  campaign.  It  will 
remain  the  chief  source  of  information  with 
regard  to  the  defense  of  the  Souih-west  in 
1814  and  1815.] 

Jackson  and  New  Orleans.  An  authentic 
Narrative  of  the  memorable  Achievements  of 
the  American  army,  under  Andrew  Jackson, 
before  New  Orleans,  in  the  Winter  of  1814 
and  1815  By  AlexanderWalker.  New  York, 
1856.  12mo.  411  pp. 


LIST     OF     PUBLICATIONS. 


XVI I 


[This  work  is  one  of  the  best  executed 
pieces  of  American  history  in  existence — most 
rich  in  facts,  told  with  spirit  and  ett'ect.  It 
needs  only  a  thorough  revision  and  a  slight 
toning  down,  here  and  there,  to  be  a  work  of 
classic  excellence.  To  no  single  volume  is  the 
author  of  this  work  so  much  indebted  as  to 
•'  Jackson  and  New  Orleans."  By  the  older 
inhabitants  of  New  Orleans  its  great  merit  has 
been  fully  appreciated.] 

Notes  on  the  War  in  the  South,  with  bi 
ographical  Sketches  of  the  Lives  of  Mont 
gomery,  Jackson,  Sevier,  the  late  Governor 
Claiborne  and  others.  By  Nathaniel  Herbert 
Claiborne,  of  Frankiin  county,  Virginia,  a 
Member  of  the  Executive  of  Virginia  during 
the  late  War.  Kichmond,  1S19,  ISino.  112 
PP 

[A  little  volume  much  sought  after  by  col 
lectors  because  it  is  scarce;  but  it  is  of 
scarcely  any  value.] 

Fifty  Years  in  both  Hemispheres;  or,  Re 
miniscences  of  the  Life  of  a  former  Merchant. 
By  Vincent  Nolle,  late  of  New  Orleans. 
Translated  from  the  German.  New  York, 
1S54.  12mo.  434pp. 

[The  author  served  in  the  battle  of  New 
Orleans.  His  book,  which  abounds  in  curious 
and  not  ill-toM  anecdotes,  has  but  one  fault: 
you  can  not  believe  a  word  it  says.  That  is, 
not  implicitly.  The  author  exaggerates  and 
perverts.  The  desire  of  telling  a  good  story  is, 
at  all  times,  too  much  for  his  sense  of  truth.] 

The  Manhattaner  in  New  Orleans;  or, 
Phases  of  "Crescent  City"  Life.  By  A.. 
Oakey  Hall.  New  York,  1851.  12ino.  190 
pp. 

[Describes  the  field  as  it  now  is,  and  gives 
an  old  soldier's  version  of  the  battle.] 

National  Intelligencer,  of  1812,  1813,  1814 
and  18  L5.  Washington. 

[The  Intelligencer  having  been  then  the 
confidential  organ  of  Mr.  Madison's  adminis 
tration,  contains  more  war  matter  than  any 
other.  It  was  the  great  source  of  domestic 
intelligence  at  that  day.] 

Evening  Pott,  of  1812, 1813, 1814  and  1815. 
New  York. 

[A  leading  opposition  or  Federal  paper  at 
that  day.  Gives  the  oilier  side  of  the  war 
picture.  Abounds  in  interesting  matter.] 

General  Jackson's  Fine.  An  Examination 
of  the.  Question  of  Martial  Law,  with  an  Ex 
planation  of  the  Law  of  Contempt  of  Court. 
Suggested  by  Reflections  on  the  Injustice  of 
the  Fine  imposed  on  General  Jackson  by 
Judge  Hall  in  1815.  By  Charles  J.  Ingersoll. 
Washington,  1843.  8vo.  88  pp. 

[An  elaborate  statement  and  defense  of 
General  Jackson's  proceedings  after  the  battle 
of  New  Orleans.  Valuable  documents  in  ap 
pendix.] 

Recollections  of  a  Lifetime ;  or,  Men  and 
Things  I  have  Seen,  in  a  Series  of  familial- 
Letters  to  a  Friend,  historical,  biographical, 
anecdotical  and  descriptive.  By  8  G.  Good 
rich,  2  vols.  12mo.  New  York  and  Auburn, 
1856. 

VOL.  I. 2 


[Full  account  of  Hartford  Convention.  An 
ecdotes  of  Monroe  and  Jackson.  The  peace 
rejoicings  in  1815.] 

Letters  of  General  Adairand  General  Jack 
son  relative  to  the  Charge  of  Cowardice  made 
by  the  latter  against  the  Kentucky  Troops  at 
New  Orleans.  Lexington,  Kentucky,  1817. 
8vo.  62  pp. 

[An  angry  and  embittered  correspondence. 
Adds  a  few  facts  to  our  knowledge  of  the  bat 
tle  of  New  Orleans.] 

The  Campaign  of  the  British  Army  at 
Washington  and  New  Orleans,  in  the  years 
1814  and  1815.  By  the  author  of  the  Sub 
altern.  London,  1837. 

[The  best  narrative  of  the  New  Orleans 
campaign,  by  a  British  officer.  Full,  temper 
ate,  gentleman  like.] 

A  Narrative  of  Events  in  the  South  of 
France,  and  of  the  Attack  on  New  Orleans, 
in  1814  and  1815.  By  Captain  John  Henry 
Cooke.  London,  1835. 

[A  British  officer's  narrative  of  what  he  saw 
and  experienced  in  the  New  Orleans  cam 
paign.] 

Recollections  of  an  Artillery  Officer.  By 
Benson  Earle,  H.  U.  2  vols.  8vo.  London, 
about  1830. 

[The  author  served  at  the  battle  of  New 
Orleans  in  the  British  army,  and  afterwards 
turned  actor.  He  narrates  personal  incidents 
in  a  lively  manner.] 

Proceedings  of  the  Court  Martial  upon 
Lieutenant  Colonel  Mullens,  of  the  Forty- 
fourth  Infantry.  London,  1815. 

[Mullens  commanded  the  forty-fourth  Brit 
ish  infantry  at  the  battle  of  the  8th  of  Janu 
ary,  where  he  was  greatly  in  fault.  The  pro 
ceedings  of  the  court  martial  I  have  not  been 
able  to  procure,  bnt  finding  them  quoted  in 
English  works,  have  used  various  parts  of  the 
evidence.] 

A  Full  and  Correct  Account  of  the  Military 
Occurrences  of  the  Late  War  between  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States  of  America; 
with  an  Appendix  and  Plates.  By  William 
James,  Author  of  "  A  Full  and  Correct  Ac 
count  of  the  Chef  Naval  Occurrences,  etc. 
2  vols.  8vo.  London,  1818. 

[An  English  view  of  the  war,  angry  and 
prejudiced;  but  containing  a  large  number 
of  dispatches  and  documents  of  the  highest 
value.] 

Official  Record  from  the  War  Department, 
of  the  pioceedings  of  the  Court  Martial  which 
tried,  and  the  Orders  of  General  Jackson  for 
shooting,  the  Six  Militia-men;  together  with 
Official  Letters  from  the  War  Department 
(ordered  to  be  printed  by  Congress),  showing 
that  these  American  citizens  were  inhumanly 
and  illegally  massacred.  Washington,  1823. 
Svo.  32  pp. 

[Contains  all  the  documents,  with  a  few 
pages  of  wild  comment.] 

Falsehood  and  Slander  Exposed.  The  Case 
of  the  Six  Militia-men,  stated  from  official 
and  authentic  records.  Published  by  order 


XV111 


LIST      OF      PUBLICATIONS. 


of  the  Jackson  Central   Committee.      1828. 
8vo.    15  pp. 

[A  defense  of  General  Jackson's  conduct,  in 
ordering  the  execution  of  the  Six  Militia-men, 
at  Mobile,  in  1815.] 

Monumental  Inscription.  Philadelphia, 
1828.  8vo.  16  pp. 

[A  collection  of  the  "Coffin  Hand-bills," 
published  by  John  Binns,  of  Philadelphia. 
Designed  to  keep  alive  (in  the  minds  of 
voters)  the  memory  of  the  Six  Militia-men 
executed  at  Mobile,  in  1815,  by  order  of  Gen 
eral  Jackson.] 

The  Territory  of  Florida ;  or  Sketches  of 
the  Topography,  Civil  and  Natural  History 
of  the  Country,  the  Climate,  and  the  Indian 
Tribes,  from  the  first  discovery  to  the  pres 
ent  time.  By  John  Lee  Williams.  New 
York,  1887.  8vo. 

[Has  information  respecting  General  Jack 
son's  first  and  second  invasions  of  Florida; 
but  incomplete  and  unsatisfactory.  In  other 
respects  a  valuable  work.] 

Memoir  upon  the  Negotiations  between 
Spain  and  the  United  States  of  America, 
which  led  to  the  treaty  of  1819,  with. a  Statis 
tical  Notice  of  that  country ;  accompanied 
with  an  Appendix,  containing-  important 
documents.  By  D.  Luis  De  Oris,  late  Minister 
Plenipotentiary  near  that  Republic.  Trans 
lated  from  the  Spanish,  with  Notes,  by  Tobias 
Watkins.  Baltimore,  1821.  Svo.  152  pp. 

[Chiefly  a  description  of  the  United  States. 
Contains  very  little  to  justify  the  first  part  of 
its  title.  The  author  was  a  frequent  protester 
against  General  Jackson's  invasion  of  Florida. 
His  work  is  nearly  worthless ;  and  the  appen 
dix  contains  but  one  document,  and  that  of  no 
value.] 

General  Jackson's  conduct  in  the  Seminole 
War,  delineated  in  a  History  of  that  Period, 
affording  conclusive  reasons  why  he  should 
not  bo  next  President.  By  Samuel  Perkins, 
Esq.  Brooklyn,  Conn.  1828.  Svo.  39  pp. 

[A  temperate  and  well-written  pamphlet, 
presenting  the  facts  in  a  light  unfavorable  to 
General  Jackson.] 

Eesidence  at  the  Court  of  London.  By 
Richard  Rush.  Philadelphia,  1833.  Svo. 

[Mr.  Rush  was  the  American  Minister  in 
England  during  General  Jackson's  second 
invasion  of  Florida,  in  1818.  He  describes 
the  effect  produced  in  England  by  the  news 
of  the  execution  of  Arbutlmot  and  Am- 
brister.] 

Royal  Gazette  and  Bahama  Advertiser  of 
1818.  Nassau,  New  Providence. 

[Contains  the  anti- Jackson  view  of  the  exe 
cution  of  Arbuthnot  and  Ambrister,  who 
went  from  New  Providence  to  Florida.  Con 
tains  all  the  documents  relative  to  the  de 
scent  of  the  band  of  adventurers  upon  Amelia 
Island  in  1817.] 

Speech  of  the  Honorable  James  Tallmadge, 
Jr.,  of  Dutchess  county,  New  York,  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States 
on  the  Seminole  War.  New  York,  1819.  Svo. 
31  pi>. 


[Defends  the  execution  of  Arbuthnot  and 
Ambrister.] 

Trial  of  Arbuthnot  and  Ambrister.  Pro 
ceedings  of  the  Court  Martial  as  transmitted 
to  the  President.  1818. 

[Published  in  various  forms.  May  be  found 
at  the  end  of  "  Civil  and  Military  History  of 
Andrew  Jackson.  By  an  American  officer." 
Also  in  two  or  three  Congressional  documents 
of  the  session  of  ISIS  and"lS19.] 

Message  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  transmitting  Copies  of  the  Corre 
spondence  between  the  Governor  of  Georgia 
and  Major  General  Jackson  on  the  Subject  of 
the  Arrest  of  Captain  Obed  Wright.  Wash 
ington,  181S.  Svo.  21  pp. 

[A  document  of  the  Seminole  War.  Corre 
spondence  hostile.] 

Message  from  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  transmitting  a  Report  of  the  Secretary 
of  State,  with  the"  Documents  relating  to  a 
Misunderstanding  between  Andrew  Jackson, 
while  acting  as  Governor  of  the  Floridas,  and 
Elijius  Frometin,  Judge  of  a  Court  therein; 
also  the  Correspondence  between  the  Secre 
tary  of  State  and  the  Minister  of  Spain  ou 
certain  Proceedings  in  that  Territory,  etc., 
etc.  Washington,  1822.  Svo.  31Spp. 

[Sufficiently  described  in  the  title  page.] 

Correspondence  between  General  Andrew 
Jackson  and  John  C.  Calhoun,  President  and 
Vice  President  of  the  United  States,  on  the 
Subject  of  the  Course  of  the  latter  in  the  De 
liberations  of  the  Cabinet  of  Mr.  Monroe  on 
the  Occurrences  in  the  Seminole  War.  Wash 
ington,  1831.  Svo.  52  pp. 

[This  was  the  correspondence  which  ter 
minated  friendly  relations  between  General 
Jackson  and  Mr.  Calhoun.] 

Sketches  of  St.  Augustine,  with  a  View  of 
its  History  and  Advantages  as  a  Resort  for 
Invalids.  By  R.  K.  SewalL  New  York,  1848. 

[Contains  anecdotes  of  the  cession  of  Flori 
da.] 

The  Letters  of  Algernon  Sidney  in  Defense 
of  Civil  Liberty  and  against  the  Encroach 
ments  of  military  Despotism.  Written  by 
an  eminent  Citizen  of  Virginia,  and  first  pub 
lished  in  the  Richmond  Inquire)-  in  1818  and 
1819.  Richmond,  1830.  Svo.  65  pp. 

[Severe  review  of  General  Jackson's  mili 
tary  career.] 

Judge  Brackenridge's  Letters.  Washing 
ton,  1832.  Svo.  13  pp. 

[A  series  of  Letters  by  H.  M.  Brackenridge, 
General  Jackson's  secretary  and  translator  in 
Florida;  giving  the  history  of  his  connection 
with  General  Jackson,  and  accusing  the  gen 
eral  of  inconsistency  and  deceit.  Contains 
interesting  information  and  documents.] 

The  Lives  of  James  Madison  and  James 
Monroe,  Fourth  and  Fifth  Presidents  of  the 
United  States.  By  John  Quincy  Adams. 
With  historical  Notices  of  their  Administra 
tions.  Buffalo,  1851.  12mo.  432  pp. 

[An  enlargement  of  two  orations.  Mr. 
Adams's  statements  are  too  general  and  too 
guarded  for  the  work  to  be  of  much  biograph- 


LIST    OF   PUBLICATIONS. 


xix 


ical  valno.  His  object  was  rather  to  tell  as 
little  as  possible  than  as  much  as  possible. 
His  success  was  complete.  Madison  and 
Monroe  remain  the  mythical  personages  they 
were.] 

Niles's  Weekly  Register.  73  vols.  8vo. 
Baltimore.  From  1812  to  1848. 

[Every  volume,  except  the  first  and  second, 
contains  important  matter  respecting  Gen 
eral  Jackson's  public  acts.  Innumerable  doc 
uments.] 

Abridgement  of  the  Debates  of  Congress 
from  1789  to  1856.  By  the  Author  of  the 
Thirty  Years'  View  (Thomas  H.  Benton). 
15  vols.  8vo.  New  York,  1S57. 

[All  the  volumes,  except  the  third  and 
fourth,  contain  Jacksonian  matter.] 

Congressional  Documents.     Washington. 

[The  documents  containing  information 
concerning  the  acts  of  General  Jackson  are 
too  numerous  for  mention.  See,  in  particu 
lar,  those  of  the  years  1815, 1818,  1821,  1828, 
1829,  1830,  1831  to  1838.] 

Ten  Years  of  Preacher  Life  :  Chapters  from 
an  Autobiography.  By  William  Henry  Mil- 
burn.  New  York,  1859.  12mo.  363  pp. 

[Anecdotes  of  Gen.  Jackson,  Sketches  of 
Southwestern  Life,Official  Life  inWashingt'n.] 

The  Life  and  Times  of  Aaron  Burr,  Lieu 
tenant  Colonel  in  the  Army  of  the  Revolu- 
tion,  United  States  Senator,  Vice  President 
of  the  United  States,  etc.  By  J.  Parton. 
New  York,  1858.  12mo.  700  pp. 

[A  glimpse  or  two  of  General  Jackson. 
Burr's  opinion  of  Jackson.  Burr's  agency  in 
the  nomination  of  Jackson  to  the  presidency.] 

Memoirs  of  Aaron  Burr,  with  miscellane 
ous  Selections  from  his  Correspondence.  By 
Matthew  L.  Davis.  2  vols.  New  York,  1837. 

[Contains  Burr's  brief  account  of  his  visits 
to  General  Jackson  in  1805  and  1806,  and  his 
letter  recommending  Jackson  as  the  demo 
cratic  candidate  for  the  presidency  in  1816.] 

The  Letters  of  Wyoming  to  the  People  of 
the  United  States  on  the  presidential  elec 
tion,  and  in  favor  of  Andrew  Jackson.  Orig 
inally  published  in  the  Columbian  Observer. 
Philadelphia,  1824. 

[A  series  of  spirited  papers  of  the  presiden 
tial  campaign  of  1824.  Famous  in  their  day. 
Very  severe  upon  Crawford,  the  "regular"  or 
"caucus"'  candidate  of  the  Democratic  party.] 

Leisure  Labors  ;  or,  Miscellanies,  historical, 
literary  and  political.  By  Joseph  B.  Cobb. 
New  York,  1858.  12mo.  408  pp. 

[Valuable  chiefly  for  a  memoir  of  William 
H.  Crawford,  one  of  Jackson's  competitors  for 
the  presidency  in  1824;  for  the  writing  of 
which  the  author  had  peculiar  advantages.] 

An  Address  of  Henry  Clay  to  the  Public, 
containing  certain  Testimony  in  liefutation 
of  the  Charges  atcainst  him  made  by  General 
Andrew  Jackson  touching  the  late  presiden 
tial  Election.  New  Brunswick,  1828.  Svo. 
56  pp. 

[Mr.  Clay's  defense  against  the  charge  of 
"bargain  and  corruption"  in  the  election  of 
President  by  the  House  of  Representatives  in 


Life  and  Times  of  Henry  Clay.  By  Calvin 
Colton.  8vo.  2  vols.  New  York,  1846. 

[Very  full  account  of  the  "  bargain  and  cor 
ruption"  affair.] 

Memoir  of  the  Life  of  John  Quincy  Adams. 
By  Josiah  Quincy,  LL.D.  Boston,  1858.  8vo. 
429  pp. 

[Moderate,  painstaking,  accurate,  colorless. 
Just  such  a  life  of  Mr.  Adams  as  Mr.  Adams 
wrote  of  other  men.  No  new  light  upon  the 
vexed  subjects.  A  valuable  and  creditable 
work,  though  written  on  the  ancient  princi 
ple  of  presenting  the  public  with  a  perfect 
man.] 

Life  and  Public  Services  of  John  Quincy 
Adams,  Sixth  President  of  the  United  States. 
With  the  Eulogy  delivered  before  the  Legis 
lature  of  New  York.  By  William  H.  Seward. 
Auburn,  1849.  12mo.  404  pp. 

[An  outside,  eulogistic  work ;  not  such  a 
book  as  the  reader  would  naturally  expect 
from  Senator  Seward.  Throws  no  light  on 
the  vexed  questions.] 

Mr.  Chilton's  Letter  to  Mr.  Wickliffe  on 
the  Expenditures  of  the  last  and  present  Ad 
ministrations.  Washington,  1830.  Svo.  8  pp. 

[A  defense  of  the  administration  of  John 
Quincy  Adams  against  the  charge  of  extrava 
gance  ] 

General  Jackson  and  James  Buchanan. 
Letter  from  Francis  P.  Blair  to  the  Public. 
Washington,  1856.  Svo.  15  pp. 

[A  pamphlet  written  to  reveal  the  agency 
of  Mr.  Buchanan  in  the  "  bargain  and  corrup 
tion"  business  of  1825.  Contains  information 
respecting  General  Jackson's  pecuniary  affairs 
after  his  retirement  from  the  presidency.] 

Truth's  Advocate  and  Monthly  Anti 
Jackson  Expositor.  By  an  Association  of 
Individuals.  Cincinnati,  1828. 

[A  campaign  publication  presenting  the 
leading  acts  of  General  Jackson's  life  in  the 
most  unfavorable  light,  but  valuable  from  the 
mass  of  documents  given.] 

Proceedings  and  Address  of  the  New  Jersey 
Delegates  in  favor  of  the  present  Administra 
tion  of  the  General  Government,  assembled 
in  Convention  at  Trenton,  February  22, 1828 
Trenton.  Svo.  18  pp. 

[Nominated  John  Quincy  Adams  for  Presi 
dent,  and  Richard  Rush  for  Vice  President. 
Address  temperate  and  forcible.] 

The  Voice  of  Virginia  on  the  Approaching 
Election.  Svo.  8  pp. 

[For  the  reelection  of  Adams  in  1828. 
Dwells  on  the  violence  of  Jackson,  and  his 
incapacity.] 

Address  of  the  Fayette  County  Correspond 
ing  Committee  on  the  Proceedings  in  the 
Senate  of  Kentucky,  against  the  President, 
Secretory  of  State,  and  Members  of  Congress; 
and  on  other  subjects  connected  with  the  ap 
proaching  presidential  election  Lexington, 
Ky.  Svo.  40  pp. 

[Warm  anti-Jackson  pamphlet  of  1S28  :  de 
signed  particularly  to  counteract  the  efforts 
of  Amos  Kendall  and  Francis  P.  Blair,  who 
were  striving  to  carry  the  State  of  Kentucky 
for  General  Jackson,  f 


XX 


LIST    OF    PUBLICATIONS. 


An  Address  to  the  People  of  the  United 
States ;  being  an  examination  of  a  pamphlet, 
written  by  "Artatides,"  and  designed  to  mid- 
lead  the  public  mind  in  favor  of  General 
Jackson.  By  Brutus.  1828.  Svo.  28  pp. 

[An  electioneering  pamphlet  of  the  presi 
dential  campaign  of  1828.] 

Recollections  of  the  Life  of  John  Binns. 
Written  by  himself.  Philadelphia,  1854.  8vo. 

[Mr.  Binns  was  an  active  anti-Jackson  poli 
tician,  who,  in  1828,  designed  and  published 
the  famous  "Coffin  Handbills."] 

The  Presidential  Question;  addressed  to 
the  People  of  the  United  States.  New  York, 
1828.  8vo.  16  pp. 

[An  anti-Jackson  campaign  pamphlet.] 

Memoirs  of  James  Gordon  Bennett  and  his 
Times.  By  a  Journalist.  New  York,  1S55. 
12mo.  488  pp. 

[Contains  notices  of  the  presidential  cam 
paign  of  1828  and  1832,  a  description  of  General 
Jackson's  inauguration,  and  other  scenes  in 
Washington.  Mr.  Bennett  was  then  the 
Washington  correspondent  of  the  Courier 
and  Inquirer.] 

Biography  of  Martin  Van  Buren,  Vice  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States;  with  an  Appendix 
containing  selections  from  his  Writings,  in 
cluding  his  Speeches  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States  on  the  claims  of  the  Soldiers  of 
the  Revolution,  and  in  favor  of  abolishing 
imprisonment  for  debt,  with  other  valuable 
documents,  among  which  will  be  found  the 
late  Letter  of  Colonel  Thomas  H.  Benton  to 
the  Convention  of  the  State  of  Mississippi. 
Compiled  and  edited  by  William  Etnmonds. 
Washington,  1835.  12ino. 

[Written  to  promote  the  election  of  Martin 
Van  Buren  to  the  presidency  in  1836.] 

Address  of  the  Administration  Standing 
Committee  to  their  Fellow-Citizens  of  Indi 
ana,  1828.  8vo.  22  pp. 

[An  Anti-Jackson  pamphlet  of  1828.  An 
ticipates  nullification  ;  deonunces  the  anti- 
tariff  men  of  the  South  ;  accuses  Southerners 
of  arrogance.] 

The  Votes  and  Speeches  of  Martin  Van 
Buren  on  the  subject  of  the  Right  of  Suf 
frage,  the  Qualifications  of  Colored  Persons  to 
vote,  and  the  Appointment  or  Election  of 
Justices  of  the  Peace.  In  the  Convention  of 
the  State  of  New  York  (assembled  to  amend 
the  Constitution  in  1821.)  Duly  authenticat 
ed  and  verified.  Albany,  1840.  Svo.  24  pp. 

[Shows  Mr.  Van  Buren  to  have  been  an 
opponent  of  universal  suffrage  as  late  as  1821. 
One  ground  of  his  opposition  to  it  was,  that 
it  would  give  the  right  of  voting  to  the  row 
dies,  shoulder-hitters,  and  Pewter-muggians 
of  the  city  of  New  York.] 

Speech  of  the  Hon.  M.  Van  Buren,  of  the 
Senate,  on  the  Act  to  carry  into  effect  the 
Act  of  the  13th  of  April,  1819,  for  the  Settle 
ment  of  the  late  Governor's  Accounts.  Al- 
any,  1820.  Svo.  37  pp. 

[One  of  the  most  elaborate  of  Mr.  Van 
Buren's  early  speeches.  It  defends  Governor 
Tompkins  against  the  charge  of  misusing  the 
public  money.] 

The  Life  and  Times  of  Martin  Van  Buren  ; 


the  Correspondence  of  his  Friends,  Family 
and  Pupils;  together  with  brief  Notices, 
Sketches  and  Anecdotes,  illustrative  of  the 

Sublic    career    of   Polk,    Calhoun,  Jackson, 
urr,   etc.,   etc.,   etc.     By  William   L.  Mac 
kenzie.    Boston,  1846.    Svo.    8l)8  pp. 

[A  formidable  mass  of  letters  and  gossip. 
The  volume  presents  a  revolting  view  of  in 
terior  politics.] 

The  Voice  of  the  People  and  the  Facts  in 
Relation  to  the  Rejection  of  Martin  Van  Bu 
ren  by  the  United  States  Senate.  Albany, 
1832.  Svo.  40  pp. 

[Contains  the  speeches  of  Messrs.  Webster, 
Forsyth,  Marcy  and  others  in  the  Senate  on 
the  President's  nomination  of  Mr.  Van  Buren 
to  the  London  mission.  Also  the  proceedings 
of  a  meeting  at  Albany  to  denounce  the  con 
duct  of  theSenate  in  rejecting  the  nomination.] 

The  Cabinet  and  Talisman.  New  York» 
1829.  ISmo. 

[A  kind  of  annual  or  gift  book.  Contains  a 
memoir  of  General  Jackson,  of  each  member 
of  his  first  cabinet  and  of  General  Macomb  ; 
the  whole  occupying  two  or  three  hundred 
pages.  Extremely  eulogistic.] 

Correspondence.  Letters  of  the  Republican 
Members  of  the  New  York  Legislature  to  the 
President.  Svo.  8  pp. 

[Mr.  Van  Buren's  rejection  by  the  Senate  is 
the  subject  of  this  correspondence.  General 
Jackson  justifies  and  commends  Mr.  Van 
Buren's  conduct  abroad.] 

The  Life  of  Martin  Van  Buren,  heir  appa 
rent  to  the  "Government," and  the  appointed 
Successor  of  General  Andrew  Jackson.  Con 
taining  every  authentic  particular  by  which 
his  extraordinary  Character  has  been  formed. 
With  a  concise  History  of  the  Events  that 
have  occasioned  his  unparalleled  Elevation, 
together  with  a  Review  of  his  Policy  as  a 
Statesman.  By  David  Crockett.  Philadel 
phia,  1835.  12rno.  209  pp. 

[A  burlesque  biography,  containing  truth, 
error,  wit,  sense  and  nonsense  in  about  equal 
proportions.] 

The  House  that  Jonathan  built ;  or,  Politi 
cal  Primer  for  1832.  With  twelve  cuts.  Svo. 
16pp. 

[A  parody  on  the  "  House  that  Jack  built." 
Designed  to  ridicule  General  Jackson  and 
Mr.  Van  Buren.] 

A  History  of  the  present  Cabinet.  Benton 
in  Ambush  for  the  next  Presidency.  Kendall 
coming  in  third  best.  An  Exposition  of  Mar 
tin  Van  Buren's  Reign.  Washington,  District 
Columbia,  1840.  Svo.  8  pp. 

[Nothing.] 

The  Northern  Man  with  Southern  Princi 
ples,  and  the  Southern  Man  with  American 
Principles;  or,  a  View  of  the  comparative 
Claims  of  General  William  H.  Harrison  and 
Martin  Van  Buren.  Esq.,  Candidates  for  the 
presidency,  to  the  Support  of  th«  Citizens  of 
the  Southern  States.  Washington,  1840.  Svo. 
40pp. 

[Accuses  Mr.  Van  Buren  of  believing  that 
black  men  have  rights  that  white  men  are 
bound  to  respect.] 


LIST    OF    PUBLICATIONS. 


XXI 


Speech  of  Mr.  Holmes,  of  Maine,  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  on  his  Resolu 
tions  calling  upon  the  President  of  the  United 
States  lor  the  Reasons  of  his  removing  from 
Office,  and  filling  the  Vacancies  thus  created, 
in  the  Recess  of  the  Senate.  Washington, 
1830.  8vo.  28  pp. 

[The  best  thing  that  appeared  at  the  time 
against  the  reiuo'vals.  Contains  a  catalogue 
of  all  the  removals  from  office  by  Presidents 
Washington,  John  Adams,  Jefferson,  Madison, 
Monroe"  and  John  Quincy  Adams,  and  the 
cause  of  each  so  far  as  known.] 

Mrs.  Barney's  Letter  to  President  Jack 
son.  Baltimore,  June  13th,  1829.  8vo.  4 
pp. 

[Commodore  Barney  was  dismissed  from 
cfhce  by  General  Jackson,  and  his  family  thus 
deprived  of  their  means  of  support.  This  is 
Mrs.  Barney's  remonstrance.] 

The  Lives  and  Opinions  of  Benjamin 
Franklin  Butler,  United  States  District 
Attorney  for  the  Southern  District  of  New 
York,  and  Jesse  Hoyt,  Counselor  at  Law, 
formerly  Collector  of  Customs  for  the  Port  of 
New  York.  By  William.  L.  Mackenzie.  Bos 
ton,  1845.  Svo.  152  pp. 

[A  mass  of  the  private  letters  of  Butler, 
Hoyt,  Swartwout,  Martin  Van  Buren,  John 
Van  Buren.  Cambreling,  James  Gordon  Ben- 
net,  M.  M.  Noah  and  other  New  York  politi 
cians,  connected  by  remarks  gossippy  and 
satirical.  It  is  a  book  of  gossip  and  scandal 
that  never  ought  to  have  appeared,  but  con 
tains  some  things  not  to  be  overlooked  by  an 
inquirer  into  the  Jacksonian  period.  Throws 
light  on  office-seeking  and  appointments.] 

Memoirs,  Official  and  Personal,  with 
Sketches  of  Travel  among  the  Northern 
and  Southern  Indians;  embracing  a  War 
Excursion  and  Descriptions  of  Scenes  along 
the  Western  Border.  By  Thomas  L.  M'Kin- 
ney,  late  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Indian  Af 
fairs.  New  York,  1846.  Svo.  2  vols.  in  1. 

[Narrates  interviews  between  President 
Jackson  and  Colonel  M'Kinney,  throwing 
light  on  the  manner  in  which  offices  were 
vacated  and  filled  under  General  Jackson. 
Colonel  M'Kinney  was  removed  from  office 
by  General  Jackson.] 

Political  Sketches  of  Eight  Years  in  Wash 
ington.  By  Robert  Mayo,  M.  D.  Baltimore, 
18=39.  Svo.  214pp. 

[The  tirade  of  a  disappointed  office-seeker 
against  the  administration  of  General  Jack 
son,  with  here  and  there  a  glimpse  of  inter 
esting  fact,  which  gives  the  work  a  certain 
value.] 

Fragments  of  Jacksonism,  alias,  Clandestine 
Van  Burenism.  By  Robert  Mayo,  M.  D. 
Washington,  1840.  Svo.  80  pp. 

[Another  rigmarole  by  the  officious  and 
disappointed  Mayo.  Reveals  much  of  the 
office-slavery  at  Washington.  Contains  let 
ters  of  Geiteral  Jackson,  Amos  Kendall  and 
others. 

Reply  to  a  Letter  published  by  Henry  Orne, 
In  the  Boston  Evening  Bulletin,  with  an  Ap 
pendix.  By  Nathaniel  Greene,  late  editor  of 


the  Boston  Statesman.    Boston,  1829.    8vo. 
39pp. 

[An  editorial  quarrel.  Some  choice  glimp 
ses  of  interior  politics.] 

Candid  Appeal  to  the  American  Public,  in 
reply  to  Messrs.  Ingham,  Branch  and  Berrien, 
on  the  Dissolution  of  the  late  Cabinet.  By 
John  H.  Eaton.  City  of  Washington,  1831. 
Svo.  55  pp. 

[Major  Eaton's  version  of  the  cabinet  ex 
plosion  of  1831.] 

Courier  and  Inquirer,  of  1831.  New  York. 

[Contains  all  the  documents  of  the  affair  of 
Mrs.  Eaton.] 

Essays  on  the  Present  Crisis  in  the  Condi 
tion  of  the  American  Indians;  first  published 
in  the  National  Intelligent er  under  the  sig 
nature  of  William  Penn.  Boston,  1829.  Svo. 
112  pp. 

[Against  the  forcible  removal  of  the  Chero- 
kees  to  the  Indian  Territory  west  of  the  Mis 
sissippi.] 

Speeches  on  the  passage  of  the  Bill  for  the 
removal  of  the  Indians,  delivered  in  the  Con 
gress  of  the  United  States,  April  and  May, 
1830.  Boston,  1830.  12mo.  304  pp. 

[Ten  speeches  against  the  forcible  removal 
of  the  Cherokees  to  the  Indian  Territory 
west  of  the  Mississippi — the  great  question  of 
1830.  The  principal  speech  is  by  Edward 
Everett] 

Opinion  on  the  Right  of  the  State  of 
Georgia  to  extend  her  Laws  over  the  Chero 
kee  Nation.  By  William  Wirt,  Esq.  Balti 
more,  1830.  Svo.  29  pp. 

[Tliis  opinion  was  solicited  by  the  Cherokee 
chiefs.  Adverse  to  the  claims  of  Georgia.] 

The  Argument  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  upon  the  Constitutionality  of  a  Na 
tional  Bank.  Philadelphia,  1791.  Svo.  40  pp 

[By  Alexander  Hamilton.  The  earliest  oi 
innumerable  bank  pamphlets.] 

Desultory  Reflections  upon  the  Ruinous 
Consequences  of  a  non-renewal  of  the  Charter 
of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  By  M. 
Carey.  Philadelphia,  1810.  Svo.  44  pp. 

[A  relic  of  one  of  the  early  bank  contro 
versies  ;  of  no  interest  now.] 

Observations  on  the  State  of  the  Currency, 
with  suggestions  for  equalizing  its  value,  and 
reducing  the  uniformity  of  the  Banking  Sys 
tem  in  the  United  States.  January  1,  1829 
Svo.  24  pp. 

[Nothing  to  do  with  the  bank  war,  which 
did  not  begin  till  some  months  later.  Infor 
mation  respecting  the  bank.] 

Notes  on  the  Early  Settlement  of  the 
North-western  Territory.  By  Jacob  Burnett. 
Cincinnati,  1847.  1  vol.  Svo. 

[Has  account  of  the  commercial  disasters 
caused  by  the  sudden  discontinuance  of 
branch  of  the  United  States  Bank  at  Cincin 
nati,  in  1822.] 

Bank  of  the  United  States.  Report.  Hous* 
of  Representatives,  April  13,  1880.  Svo 
30pp. 


xxn 


LIST      OF      PUBLICATIONS. 


[Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means  on  the  portion  of  the  President's  Mes 
sage  of  1829,  relating  to  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States.  Adverse  to  the  bank.] 

Bank  of  the  United  States.  House  of  Rep 
resentatives.  Document  460.  1832.  8vo. 
572  pp. 

[A  huge  volume,  containing:  1,  Report  of 
the  majority  of  a  select  committee  appointed 
by  the  House  to  inquire  into  the  aifairs  of  the 
bank  ;  2.  Report  of  the  minority ;  3,  Report 
of  -John  Quincy  Adams.] 

Address  to  the  Citizens  of  Middlesex.  New 
Brunswick,  N.  J.,  1837.  8vo.  15  pp. 

[Sharp  review  of  General  Jackson's  cur- 
'•ency  measures.] 

Oration  delivered  at  the  Democratic  Re 
publican  Celebration  of  the  Fourth  of  July, 
1838.  By  Edwin  Forrest,  Esq.  .New  York, 

1838.  8vo.    24  pp. 

[Alludes  to  General  Jackson's  "  Experi 
ments"  with  regard  to  the  currency.  Extols 
Experiments  in  the  abstract;  meaning  there 
by  General  Jackson's.] 

Society,  Manners  and  Politics  in  the  United 
States;  being  a  series  of  Letters  on  North 
America.  By  Michael  Chevalier.  Boston, 

1839.  8vo.     467pp. 

[M.  Chevalier  was  in  the  United  States 
during  the  bank  war  of  General  Jackson's 
Administration,  and  gives  an  outside  French 
view  of  the  same,  which  has  some  interest, 
but  small  value.] 

Facts  for  the  Laboring  Man.  By  a  Labor 
ing  Man.  Newport,  R.  I.,  1840.  8vo.  102  pp. 

[Condemnatory  review  of  General  Jack 
son's  and  Mr.  Van  Buren's  currency  meas 
ures.] 

Extracts  from  the  Veto  Message  of  General 
Andrew  Jackson,  and  other  Documents  re 
lating  to  the  United  states  Bank,  respectfully 
recommended  to  the  particular  attention  of 
the  independent  electors  of  the  city  of  New 
York.  By  a  Committee  especially  appointed 
for  this  purpose.  New  York,  1832.  8vo. 
31pp. 

[A  campaign  pamphlet  of  1832,  to  promote 
the  reelection  of  General  Jackson.] 

The  War  on  the  Bank  of  the  United  States ; 
or  a  Review  of  the  Measures  of  the  Adminis 
tration  against  that  institution,  and  the  pros 
perity  of  the  country.  Philadelphia,  1834. 
8vo.  155  pp. 

[One  of  the  most  powerful  and  elaborate  of 
our  political  pamphlets.  Against  the  Ad 
ministration.] 

Considerations  on  the  Currency  and  Bank 
ing  System  of  the  United  States.  By  Albert 
Gallatin.  Philadelphia,  1831.  8vo.  108pp. 

[An  enlarged  edition  of  Mr.  Gallatin's 
essay.  This  is  one  of  the  publications  which 
the  bank  was  accused  of  disseminating  at  the 
expense  of  the  stockholders.] 

Thirty-Seven  and  Fifty-Seven:  a  brief 
Popular  Account  of  all  the  Financial  Panics 
and  Commercial  Revulsions  in  the  United 


States,  from  1690  to  1857.  By  members  of 
the  New  York  Press.  New  York,  1857.  12mo. 
59  pp. 

[Contains  a  sketch  of  General  Jackson's 
currency  measures,  with  the  opinions  of  lead 
ing  men  as  to  their  agency  in  producing  the 
revulsion  of  1887.] 

Napoleonic  Ideas.  By  the  Prince  Napoleon 
Louis  Bonaparte.  Illustrated  by  James  A. 
Dorr.  New  York,  1859.  12mo.  154  pp. 

[The  author  was  in  the  United  States  dur 
ing  General  Jackson's  war  with  the  United 
States  Bank,  and  briefly  indicates  his  impres 
sions  of  the  same.] 

General  Jackson  Vetoed ;  being  a  Review 
of  the  Veto  Message  of  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States.  12mo.  24  pp. 

[Presidential  campaign  of  1832.] 

Review  of  the  Veto ;  containing  an  Enun 
ciation  of  the  Principles  of  the  "President's 
Message,  and  his  Objections  to  the  Bill  to 
Modify  and  Continue  the  Act  rechartering 
the  Bank  ef  the  United  States.  Philadelphia, 
1822.  Svo.  66pp. 

[An  able  and  temperate  bank  pamphlet.] 

Essay  on  the  Spirit  of  Jacksonism,  as  ex 
emplified  in  its  deadly  hostility  to  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States,  and  in  the  odious  cal 
umnies  employed  for  its  destruction.  By 
Aristides.  Philadelphia,  1835.  Svo.  151  pp. 

[A  series  of  newspaper  articles  collected. 
Very  bitter  against  Jackson  and  his  friends. 
Severe  review  of  the  Portsmouth  affair 
Valueless.] 

An  Account  of  Colonel  Crockett's  Tour  to 
the  North  and  Down  East,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty- 
four;  his  object  being  to  examine  the  grand 
manufacturing  establishments  of  the  country , 
and  also  to  find  out  the  condition  of  its  litera 
ture  and  morals,  the  extent  of  its  commerce, 
and  the  practical  operation  of  "  the  Experi 
ment."  Written  by  himself.  Philadelphia, 
1835.  12mo.  216  pp. 

[An  electioneering  tour,  humorously  re 
lated,  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  suc 
cession  of  Mr.  Van  Buren  to  the  presidency. 
Crockett  turneed  against  his  old  commander 
on  the  currency  question.] 

Narrative  and  Correspondence  concerning 
the  Removal  of  the  Deposits,  and  Occur 
rences  connected  therewith.  Philadelphia, 
1838.  Svo.  176pp. 

[By  W.  J.  Duane,  Secretary  of  the  Treas 
ury  under  General  Jackson,  but  dismissed 
because  he  would  not  remove  the  public 
money  from  the  United  States  Bank.  This  is 
Mr.  Duane's  narrative  of  the  events  that  led 
to  his  dismissal.  Two  hundred  and  fifty 
copies  only  were  printed,  which  were  dis 
tributed  among  the  author's  friends.  Very 
scarce.  One  copy  in  Astor  Library,] 

Speech  of  the  Honorable  Nathaniel  P. 
Tallmadge,  of  New  York,  on  the  Subject  of 
the  Removal  of  the  Deposits  from  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States.  Delivered  in  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States,  March,  1834  City  of 
Washington,  1S34.  Svo.  34  pp. 


LIST      OP     PUBLICATIONS. 


XX111 


[A  defense  of  the  administration  against 
Mr.  Clay's  resolutions  of  censure.] 

Speech  of  Mr.  Rufus  Choate  on  the  Ques 
tion  of  the  Removal  of  the  Deposits.  Deliv 
ered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  March 
2Sth,  1834.  Washington,  1834.  Svo.  23  pp. 

[Against  the  removal.] 

Report  of  the  Committee  of  the  Directors 
of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  12mo.  48 
pp. 

[The  Bank's  reply  to  the  accusations  of  the 
President  contained  in  the  paper  read  to  the 
cabinet  in  1S33,  in  which  the  President  justi 
fied  the  removal  of  the  deposits.  Documents 
in  the  appendix.] 


a  Resolution  of  that  Body.    Baltimore,  1832. 
Svo.     62  pp. 

[A  severe  and  able  review  of  General  Jack 
son's  first  term.  Dwells  upon  Rotation,  the 
Cabinet  Explosion  and  the  Bank  Veto.] 

The  Beauties  of"  Reform  ;''  or,  the  munifi 
cent  Blessings  of  the  great  Reformation.  By 
Telemachus.  New  Brunswick,  New  Jersey. 
1832.  Svo.  16  pp. 

[Mere  denunciation.  A  campaign  pam 
phlet.] 

Works  of  John  C.  Calhoun.  6  vols.  Svo. 
New  York,  1854. 

[Comments  on  General  Jackson's  measures. 
I  Defense  of  Nullification.  Hostility  between 


I  Calhoun  and  Jackson.] 

Speech  of  the  Honorable  Mr.  Porter,  of  |  The  Life  of  John  Caldwell  Calhoun.  By 
Louisiana,  in  opposition  to  the  Motion  made  John  S.  Jenkins,  Author  of  the  Life  of  J.  K. 
by  Mr.  Benton  to  expunge  from  the  Journal  j  polk,  etc.,  etc.  Auburn,  1850.  12mo.  454 
f  the  Senate  the  Resolution  of  the  24th  of  |  pp. 

[Says  nothing  of  what  it  ought  to  have  said 
most.    Superseded  by  a  later  publication.] 
The  Calhoun  Text-Book.  New  York.  1843 


March,  1S34,  disapproving  of  the  Removal  of 
the  Deposits  by  the  President.    Delivered  on 
Tuesday,  March  22d,  1836.    Svo.     28  pp. 
[Against  the  administration.] 

Cabinet  Literature,  the  President's  Consist 
ency,  etc.  Baltimore,  1832.  Svo.  18  pp. 

[A  series  of  articles,  from  the  Baltimore  Pat 
riot,  criticising  the  first  term  of  General 
Jackson.] 

The  Conduct  of  the  Administration.  Re 
printed  from  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser 
and  Patriot.  Boston,  1832.  Svo.  86  pp. 

[A  very  severe  review  of  the  measures  of 
General  Jackson's  first  term.  Said  to  have 
been  written  by  Mr.  Alexander  Everett.] 

Important  Facts  for  the  People.  Philadel 
phia,  September,  1S32.  Svo.  S  pp. 

[A  stirring  anti-Jackson  sheet  designed  to 
win  votes  for  Clay  and  Sargent] 

The  Crisis.    By  Edmund  Pendleton.    1832. 

[A  series  of  letters  addressed  to  Senator  J. 
S.  Johnson  upon  the  administration  of  Gen 
eral  Jackson.  Opposition.] 

United  States  Telegraph  Extra.  "Wash 
ington,  1832. 

[A  campaign  paper,  by  Duff  Green,  pub 
lished  in  the  interest  of  the  Calhoun  faction, 
and  designed  to  prevent  the  reelection  of  Gen 
eral  Jackson.  Contains  much  amusing  trash 
of  various  kinds  ;  curious,  like  the  wreathed 
lava  of  an  extinct  volcano.] 

Proceedings  of  the  National  Republican 
Convention  of  Young  Men  which  assembled 
in  the  City  of  Washington,  May  Tth,  1S32. 
Washington,  1832.  Svo."  24  pp. 

[This  convention  nominated  Henry  Clay 
and  John  Sargent  to  run  against  Jackson  and 
Van  Buren.] 


12mo.    36  pp. 

[A  collection  of  newspaper  articles  com 
mendatory  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  published  in  an 
ticipation  of  his  being  a  candidate  for  the 
presidency  in  1844.] 

Obituary  Addresses  delivered  on  the  occa 
sion  of  the  Death  of  the  Hon.  John  C.  Cal 
houn,  a  Senator  of  South  Carolina,  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  April  1,  1850. 
Printed  by  order  of  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States.  Washington,  1850.  Svo.  39  pp. 

[Speeches  by  Messrs.  Butler,  Clay,  Web 
ster,  Rusk  and  Clemens.  Funeral  sermon  by 
Rev.  C.  M.  Butler.] 

Message  from  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  transmitting  copies  of  the  Proclama 
tion  and  Proceedings  in  relation  to  South 
Carolina,  January  16th,  1S33.  Svo.  112  pp. 

[Contains  all  the  documents  relating  to  the 
Nullification  movement.] 

Memoirs  of  a  Nullifier ;  written  by  himself. 
By  a  Native  of  the  South.  Columbia,  S.  C. 
1832.  12mo.  110  pp. 

[A  tolerably  executed  satire;  one  of  the 
products  of  the  Nullification  excitement,  illus 
trative  of  the  feelings  of  the  South  Carolini 
ans,  and  showing  their  dislike  of  the  people  of 
New  England.] 

A  Yankee  among  the  Nnllifiers ;  an  Auto 
biography.  By  Elnathan  Elmwood,  Esq. 
New  York.  1833.  12mo.  152pp. 

[A  retort  to  the  "  Memoirs  of  a  Nullifier ;" 
equally  well  done,  and  in  a  better  spirit] 

The  Dissolution  of  the  Union  ;  a  sober  Ad 
dress  to  all  those  who  have  any  interest  in  the 
Welfare,  the  Power,  the  Glory  or  the  Happi 
ness  of  the  United  States.     By  a  Citizen  of 
I  Pennsylvania.   Philadelphia,  August  25,  1832. 
I  Svo.    30pp. 

campaign  |      |-AQ  anti.miiiiflcation  pamphlet.     Gives  a 
y'J    history  of  the  movement  from  its  beginning. 
An  Address  to  the    People   of   Maryland  ;  Not  a  party  publication.] 
from  their  Delegates  in  the  late  National  Re 
publican  Convention.    Made  in  obedience  to  !      Proceedings  at  the  Republican  Celebration, 


XXIV 


LIST     OF     PUBLICATIONS. 


at  Washington,  on  the  extinguishment  of  the 
National  Debt  and  the  Victory  at  New 
Orleans.  Washington,  1835.  Svo.  16  pp. 

[Speeches  of  Bentou,  li.  M.  Johnson  and 
others.  More  than  one  hundred  toasts. 
Shocking  adulation  of  President  Jackson  by 
expectant  politicians.] 

Works  of  Daniel  Webster. 
8vo.    6  vols. 


[Contains  Mr.  Webster's  opinions  on  all  the  |  dress-] 


[Shows  the  vast  popularity  of  General 
Jackson  during  his  presidency.  Narrates  in 
terview  with  him.] 

Messages  of  General  Jackson,  with  a  short 
Sketch  of  his  Life.  Concord,  N.  H.,  1837. 
12  mo.  429  pp. 

j      [Published  by  subscription  on  the  eve  of 
Boston,  1S53.  !  General  Jackson's  retirement  from  the  presi- 
I  dency.     Contains  all  but  the  Farewell  Ad- 


important  measures  of  General  Jackson's  ad 
ministration.] 

Private  Correspondence  of  Daniel  Webster. 
Edited  by  Fletcher  Webster.  Boston.  1857. 
2  vols.  Svo. 

[Contains  much  that  is  interesting  respect 
ing  General  Jackson  and  his  contempo 
raries.] 


Sketch  of  the  Life  and  Public  Services  of 
General  Lewis  Cass,  with  the  Pamphlet  on 


By  William"  T.   Young,   Michigan.    Detroit. 
1852.    8vo.    420  pp. 

[The  life  of  one  who  was  for  six  years  a 
member  of  General  Jackson's  Cabinet.  A 
campaign  life— tells  nothing— and  tells  it  more 
voluminously  than  usual.] 

The  United  States  Magazine  and  Demo- 


The  National  Portrait  Gallery  of  Distin 
guished  Americans,  conducted  by  James  Iler- 

ring,   New  York,   and  James   B.   Longacre,  I  cratic  Review.     Washington,  D.  C. 
Philadelphia,  under  the  Superintendence  of        [Thig  perlodlcal>  once  so  famous  and  influ. 

ential,  was  started  December,  1S37.  Most  of 
ts  early  numbers  contain  articles  upon  Gene 
ral  Jackson,  his  successors  or  their  policy.] 

Life  and  Letters  of  Joseph  Story,  Associate 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  and  Dane  Professor  of  Law  at  Harvard 
University.  Edited  by  his  Son,  William  W. 
Story.  Boston,  1851.  Svo.  2  vols. 

[Contains  letters  written  by  Judge  Story 
from  Washington  during  the  administration 
of  General  Jackson,  in  which  are  allusions  to 
public  affairs.] 

A  Memoir  of  Hugh  Lawson  White,  Judge 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Tennessee,  Member 
of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  etc.  etc. 
With  Selections  from  his  Speeches  and  Cor 
respondence.  Edited  by  Nancy  N.  Scott, 
one  of  his  Descendants  "Philadelphia,  1856. 

[The  Life  of  a  man  greatly  instrumental  in 
General  Jackson's  elevation,  and  afterward 
his  opponent.  Important  information  re- 
pecting  Jackson's  second  cabinet,  removal  of 
the  deposits,  presidential  campaign  of  1836, 
etc.,  etc.] 


the  American  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts, 
vols.    New  York,  1834. 

[Contains  portraits  and  short  eulogistic 
lives  of  many  of  General  Jackson's  leading 
advisers.] 

Biography  of  Isaac  Hill,  of  New  Hampshire  ; 
with  an  Appendix,  comprising  selections  from 
his  Speeches  and  Miscellaneous  Writings. 
Concord,  N.  H.  1835.  18mo.  245  pp. 

[Isaac  Hill  was  an  important  man  in  Gen 
eral  Jackson's  Administration,  and  the  occa 
sion  of  much  embittered  controversy.  He 
was  supposed  to  be  a  member  of  the  Kitchen 
Cabinet.] 

Letters  of  J.  Downing.  Major  Downing- 
ville  Militia,  Second  Brigade,  to  his  old  friend, 
Mr.  Dwight,  of  the  New  York  Daily  Adver 
tiser.  New  York,  1834.  ISmo.  306  pp. 

[A  burlesque  on  General  Jackson's  Admin 
istration.  Prodigiously  popular  in  its  day.] 

Society  in  America.  By  Harriet  Marti neau. 
Author  of  "Illustrations  of  Political  Econo 
my."  2  vols.  New  York,  1837. 

[Interview  with  President  Jackson.  Lively 
female  portraiture  of  Clay,  Webster,  Calhoun 
and  others.  Glimpses  of  life  in  Washington. 
Account  of  the  attempt  to  "  assassinate'1  the 
President,  of  which  the  authoress  was  an  eye 
witness.] 

A  Collection  of  the  Political  Writings  of 
William  Leggett,  selected  and  arranged  with 
a  preface.  By  Theodore  Sedgwick,  Jr.  2  vols. 
New  York,  1840. 

[As  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Evening  Post, 
Mr.  Leggett  supported  the  Administration  of 
General  Jackson  until  it  permitted  southern 
postmasters  to  retain  pamphlets  and  news 
papers  containing  matter  adverse  to  slavery. 
Mr.  Legsrett  then  maintained  the  right  of 
his  southern  fellow-citizens  to  a  free  and 
equal  mail.  His  writings,  of  course,  are  full 
of  matters  Jacksonian.] 

Journal  by  Frances  Anne  Butler.  2  vols. 
Philadelphia,  1835. 


The  United 
and  History.     Containing  Lives  of  the  Pre 


States   Manual   of  Biography 
esi 


dents  and  Vice  Presidents  of  the  United 
States,  and  the  Cabinet,  Officers,  etc..  etc.,  etc. 
By  James  V.  Marshall.  Philadelphia,  1856 
Svo.  712  pp. 

[Useful  in  the  absence  of  a  better  book.] 

The  Private  Correspondence  of  Henry 
Clay.  Edited  by  Calvin  Colton,  LL.D". 
Professor  of  Public  Economy,  Trinity  Col 
lege.  New  York,  1855.  Svo.  642  pp. 

[Contains  numberless  allusions  to  General 
Jackson,  his  measures  and  his  advisers.] 

Speeches  of  the  Honorable  Henry  Clay.  2 
vols.  Svo.  Compiled  and  edited  by  Daniel 
Mallory.  New  York,  1844. 

E Comments  upon  all  of  General  Jackson's 
lie  acts.] 

Thirty  Years'  View  ;  or,  a  History  of  th« 
Workings  of  the  United  States  Government 
for  thirty  years,  from  1820  to  1S50.  Br  a 


LIST      OF     PUBLICATIONS. 


XXV 


Senator  of  thirty  years  (Thomas  H.  Benton).  ! 
L'  vols.    8vo.    New  York,  1854. 

[Nearly  one  half  of  this  voluminous  work 
is  "devoted  to  the  administration  of  Andrew 
Jackson.] 

American  Annual  Register.    Boston.    Svo.  \ 
[Abounds   in  information  respecting  Gen-  | 

eral  Jackson's  public  conduct.] 
Famous  Persons  and  Places.    By  N.  Parker  j 

Willis.     New  York,  1854.     I2mo.    492  pp. 


Papers.    By  R.  G.  Horton.     New  York,  1856. 
12mo.    428  pp. 

[A  campaign  life  of  the  deepest  dye,  casting 
not  a  gleam  of  light  where  alone  light  wad 
wanted.] 

Authentic  Biography  of  Colonel  Richard 
M.  Johnson,  of  Kentucky.  Boston,  1834. 
12mo.  93  pp. 

[A  brief  memoir  of  a  man  long  intimately 
allied  with  Jackson.  It  tells  nothing  that  we 


Glimpses  of  Washington  life.] 
Plain  Facts  for  the  Democracy.    1834.    Svo'  j 
[An  effective  anti-Jackson  and  Van  Buren 

sheet.] 


The  Political  Mirror;  or  Review  of  Jack - 
sonism.  New  York,  1835.  18mo.  815pp. 

[A  severe  review  of  General  Jackson's  ad 
ministration,  designed  to  assist  in  the  defeat 
of  Martin  Van  Buren  in  1836.  This  is  the 


An  Oration   delivered  on  the  Occasion  of    most  elaborate  thing  of  the  kind  yet  produced 


the  Inauguration  of  the  Bust  erected  to  the 
Memory  of  General  Andrew  Jackson  in  the 
city  of  Memphis,  January  8th,  1859.  By  Hon 
orable  Andrew  Ewing,  of  Nashville.  Nash 
ville,  1859.  8vo.  26  pp. 

[Contains  some  interesting  personal  recol 
lections  of  the  General,  and  a  discriminating 
estimate  of  his  character.] 


Spirit  of  76.    Nashville,  Tennessee. 
Oth,  1840,  to  January  20tb,  1841. 


June 


[A  campaign  paper  of  1840,  devoted  to  Gen 
eral  Harrison.  Contains  a  large  number  of 
articles  relating  to  the  policy  of  General 
Jackson,  and  some  letters  of  the  General's.  A 
few  grains  of  wheat  in  a  bushel  of  chaff.] 

The  Life  of  James  K.  Polk,  late  President 
of  the  United   States.     By  John  S.  Jenkins. 
Hudson  1850.    12mo.    395  pp. 
I  A  life  of  a  man  closely  allied  to  Jackson 
liticnlly.      It  has  a  campaign  flavor,   and 


politically 
does  not  ; 


add  much  to 


campi 
our  k 


nowledge  of  the 


man  or  of  the  part  he  played.] 

The  Life  and  public  Services  of  James  Bu 
chanan,  late  Minister  to  England,  and  for 
merly  Minister  to  Russia,  Senator  and  Repre 
sentative  in  Congress,  and  Secretary  of  State, 
including  the  most  important  of  his  State 


among  us,  also  one  of  the  ablest.] 

Defense  of  the  Whigs.  By  a  Member  of  the 
Twenty -seventh  Congress.  New  York,  1844. 
18mo.  152  pp. 

[A  review  of  the  measures  of  General  Jack 
son  and  his  successor.] 

The  Statesman's  Manual.  Containing  the 
President's  Messages,  inaugural,  annual  and 
special,  from  1T89  to  1858,  with  their  Memoirs, 
and  Histories  of  their  Administrations;  to 
gether  with  a  valuable  collection  of  national 
and  statistical  documents,  etc.  Compiled 
from  official  sources  by  E.  Williams  and  B.  J. 
Lossing.  4  vols.  8vo.  New  York. 

[An  invaluable  work,  fully  justifying  its 
title.] 

Report  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements 
of  the  Common  Council  of  the  city  of  New 
York  upon  the  Funeral  Ceremonies  in  Com 
memoration  of  the  Death  of  General  Andrew 
Jackson,  Ex-President  of  the  United  States. 
New  York,  1845.  8vo.  169pp. 

[A  specimen  of  corporation  job  printing. 
Contains  funeral  oration  by  Benjamin  F. 
Butler,  Correspondence,  etc..  spread  out  to 
the  utmost  possible  extent,  so  as  to  make  a 
volume  instead  of  a  pamphlet.] 


In  the  collection  of  the  above  the  author  was  greatly  aided  by  the  friendly- 
and  intelligent  zeal  of  Mr.  William  Gowans  (81  Center  street,  New  York),  the 
king  of  the  second-hand  book  trade  of  the  United  States.  No  one  can  go  far 
in  an  undertaking  of  this  kind  without  availing  himself  of  Mr.  Gowans'  wonder 
ful  stock,  and  his  still  more  wonderful  knowledge  of  books. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

PREFACE. 5 

LIST   OF    PUBLICATIONS    CONTAINING    INFORMATION    RESPECTING   AN 
DREW  JACKSON,  HIS  TIMES  AND  COTEMPORARIES 13 

CHAPTER  I. 

NORTH-OF-IRELANDERS 29 


CHAPTER   II. 

CARRICKFERGUS 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  EMIGRANTS 46 

CHAPTER  IY. 

MISCHIEVOUS  ANDY 58 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  WAR  IN  THE  CAROLINAS TO 

CHAPTER  VI 

THE  FORTUNES  OF  THE  FAMILY 85 

CHAPTER  VII. 

CHOICE  OF  A  PROFESSION...  96 


CHAPTER  YIII. 

THE  LAW  STUDENT 102 

CHAPTER  IX. 

JACKSON  AT  TWENTY 110 

CHAPTER  X. 

TO  TENNESSEE 115 

CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  SOLICITOR  FINDS  LODGINGS 125 

CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  FRONTIER  LAWYER...  134 


XXV111  CONTENTS. 

PA  OF. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

MARRIAGE  OF  THE  SOLICITOR 145 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

A  FIGHTING  DISTRICT  ATTORNEY 155 

CHAPTER  XV. 

CONSTITUTION  MAKING. ..  169 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

A  LONDONER  IN  THE  TENNESSEE  WILDERNESS 175 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

FILTHY  DEMOCRATS .- 196 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

IN  THE  HOUSE 203 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

IN  THE  SENATE 216 

CHAPTER   XX. 

JUDGE  OF  THE  SUPREME  COURT 2'27 

CHAPTER  XXL 

MAN  OF  BUSINESS 240 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

FIGHTING  ANECDOTES 254 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

GEN ERAL  JACKSON    "  CANES"  MR.  THOMAS  SWANN 265 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

GENERAL  JACKSON  REPLIES  TO  MR.  SWANN 276 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

DUEL  BETWEEN  COFFEE  AND  McNAIRY. 286 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

DICKINSON  RETURNS 289 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

THE  DUEL 295 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

GENERAL  JACKSON  ENTERTAINS  AARON  BURR 807 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

EXPLOSION  OF  BURR'S  PROJECT 317 


CONTENTS.  XXIX 

PAGK 

CHAPTER   XXX. 

GENERAL  JACKSON  IS  SUSPECTED 3'28 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

ADOPTION  OF  A  SON  AND  HEIR 33T 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

GENERAL  JACKSON'S  WAR  WITH   SILAS   DINSMORE 349 

CHAPTER   XXXIII. 

JACKSON  AND  THE  VOLUNTEERS 360 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

THE  GENERAL  WINS  HIS  NICKNAME 373 

CHAPTER  XXXY. 

FEUD  AND  AFFRAY  WITH  THE  BENTONS...  386 


CHAPTER   XXXVI. 

TECUMSEH 401 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

THE  MASSACRE  AT  FORT  MIMS 411 

CHAPTER   XXXVIII. 

TENNESSEE  IN  THE  FIELD 421 

CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

«  GENERAL  COFFEE'S  BATTLE 435 

CHAPTER  XL. 

BATTLE  OF  TALLADEGA 440 

CHAPTER  XLI. 

MISFORTUNES  OF  GENERAL  JOHN  COCKE 448 

CHAPTER  XLII. 

HUNGER  AND  MUTINY 45T 

CHAPTER  XLIII. 

MUTINY  IN  THE  MIDST  OF  PLENTY 465 

CHAPTER  XLIV. 

THE  NEW  ARMY 4T8 

CHAPTER   XLV. 

THE  RAID  AND  ITS  RESULTS...  486 


XXX  CONTENTS. 

PACK 

CHAPTER  XLVI. 

BRIGHTER  PROSPECTS 4J«J 

CHAPTER  XLVIL 

EXECUTION  OF  JOHN  WOODS 504 

CHAPTER  XLVIIL 

THE  FINISHING  BLOW 512 

CHAPTER  XLIX. 

THE  SURRENDER  OF  WEATHERSFORD 527 

CHAPTER  L. 

HONORS   TO  THE  VICTOR 537 

CHAPTER  LI. 

TREATY  OF  FORT  JACKSON 549 

CHAPTER  LII. 

THE  DARK  DAYS  OF  THE  WAR 560 

CHAPTER   LIII. 

THE  ENGLISH  AT  PENSACOLA 574 

CHAPTER  LIV. 

THE  DEEP  GAME  OF  JEAN  LAFITTE 580 

CHAPTER  LY. 

GENERAL  JACKSON  HAS  AN  EYE  ON  FLORIDA 591 

CHAPTER  LYI.  • 

COLONEL  NICHOLS  AND  CAPTAIN  PERCY  VISIT  MOBILE  POINT 600 

CHAPTER  LYII. 

GENERAL  JACKSON  RETURNS  COLONEL  NICHOLS'  VISIT...  ..  615 


APPENDICES. 

I GENERAL  JACKSON'S  BIRTH-PLACE 627 

II.— EARLY  LAW  PRACTICE  IN  TENNESSEE 62S 

III.— THE  CREEK  WAR 629 

IV— THE  TREATY  OF  FORT  JACKSON ..633 


THE  PIONEER 


CHAPTER    I. 

NORTH      OF      IRELANDEBS. 

THE  traveler  in  Ireland,  we  are  told,  on  approaching  its 
northern  province  from  the  south,  observes  an  agreeable 
change  coming  over  the  aspect  of  the  country.  The  hovels 
of  the  peasantry  and  the  cabin-suburbs  of  the  towns  gradually 
improve.  Clean  and  comfortable  inns  take  the  place  of  the 
slatternly  taverns  of  middle  and  southern  Ireland,  in  which 
nothing  is  what  it  professes  to  be,  and  nothing  does  what  it 
was  intended  to  do.  Well-cultivated  farms,  with  substantial 
farm-houses  in  good  repair,  with  orchards  and  gardens,  are 
seen  on  every  side.  An  air  of  thrift  and  comfort,  seldom  ob 
served  elsewhere  in  the  Emerald  Isle,  pervades  the  scene,  and 
the  tourist  draws  a  long  breath  of  relief,  and  thanks  Heaven 
that  he  has  come  once  more  to  a  region  where  man  is  fighting 
the  battle  of  life,  not  defeated  and  apathetic,  but  with  vigor, 
wisdom,  and  resolution — a  victor  ! 

The  appearance  of  the  people,  too,  has  changed.  The 
troops  of  beggars  that  lie  in  wait  for  the  jaunting  car  at  the 
foot  of  every  hill  in  less  favored  parts  of  Ireland,  have  van 
ished.  The  loose-haired,  ragged,  and  bare-legged  girls  of  the 
south  are  no  longer  seen.  The  girls  of  Ulster  wear  their  hair 
neatly  braided,  have  dresses  clean  and  whole,  and  are  rarely 
seen  without  stockings.  The  men  discard  the  "  old  well  of  a 
hat  which  covers  the  popular  head  at  the  other  end  of  the 
island/'  as  well  as  the  knee-breeches,  and  the  long,  loose,  ill- 
made  coat ;  and  appear  in  a  costume  less  picturesque,  per 
haps,  but  far  better  adapted  to  every  purpose  but  idling  in 

VOL.    I. 3. 


30  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON. 

the  sun.  The  faces  of  the  people,  as  Mr.  Thackeray  re 
marked,*  "  are  sharp  and  neat — not  broad,  lazy,  knowing- 
looking,  like  that  of  many  a  shambling  Diogenes  who  may  be 
seen  lounging  before  his  cabin  in  Cork  and  Kerry."  A  Scotch 
twang  is  noticed  in  the  brogue  of  the  people,  and  they  speak 
more  simply  and  to  the  point.  A  man  gives  you  a  down 
right  answer,  says  the  author  just  quoted,  without  any  grin, 
or  joke,  or  attempt  at  flattery.  Nor  do  the  small  shopkeepers 
exhibit  great  bragging  sign-boards,  and  name  their  places  of 
business  emporiums  and  repositories. 

The  contrast  is  strongly  marked,  also,  between  Dublin, 
with  its  dingy  magnificence,  its  picturesque  desolation,  and 
Belfast,  the  metropolis  of  the  North — plain,  solid,  thriving, 
and  densely  peopled ;  a  city  of  humming  factories ;  of  small 
counting-houses  and  immense  business ;  of  finished  streets 
and  elegant  villas  in  the  outskirts ;  of  reading  rooms,  Ath 
enaeums,  and  courses  of  lectures  ;  a  city  with  all  the  modern 
improvements,  in  which  a  North-of«England  man,  or  a  New 
England  man.  finds  himself  at  home.  Belfast,  says  our 
humorist,  "  looks  hearty,  thriving,  and  prosperous,  as  if  it 
had  money  in  its  pockets  and  roast  beef  for  dinner ;  it  has  no 
pretensions  to  fashion,  but  looks,  mayhap,  better  in  its  hon 
est  broadcloth,  than  some  people  in  their  shabby  brocade. 
The  houses  are  as  handsome  as  at  Dublin,  with  this  advan 
tage,  that  people  seem  to  live  in  them.  They  have  no  at 
tempt  at  ornament,  for  the  most  part,  but  are  grave,  stout, 
red-brick  edifices,  laid  out  at  four  angles  in  orderly  streets 
and  squares." 

Whence  this  contrast  between  two  adjacent  sections  of  a 
small  island  ?  Why  has  Ulster  prospered,  while  Ireland 
languished  ?  Why  was  it  that,  when  Ireland  starved,  there 
was  comparative  plenty  in  Ulster  ?  Why,  when  a  pater 
nal  government,  fearful  for  its  revenues,  forbade  Ireland  to 
manufacture  woolens,  did  the  men  of  Ulster  "have  a  dash  at" 
flax,  and  gain  such  victories  over  it,  that  now  Belfast  exports 

*  Thackeray's  Irish  Sketch-Book. 


NORTH     OF     IRELANDERS.  31 

annually  a  hundred  million  yards  of  linen,  while  the  wharves 
of  Dublin  are  deserted  ?  Why  should  a  province  which  was 
for  ages  desolated  by  internal  broils  and  foreign  inroads,  a  com 
mon  fighting-ground  of  Irish,  Scotch,  and  English,  so  wild 
and  poor  as  not  to  be  represented  in  some  early  Parliaments, 
the  last  province  to  feel  the  effects  of  orderly  rule,  a  region 
less  favored  in  climate  and  soil  than  the  counties  of  the 
south,  have  been  the  first  to  share  in  the  modern  prosperity 
of  the  British  empire,  and  the  only  one  which,  through  all 
discouragements  and  hindrances,  has  held  on  its  prosperous 
way  ? 

Because  King  James  I.,  of  various  memory,  did  one  wise 
thing.  He  found  the  north  of  Ireland  subdued,  but  lying 
waste  and  unpeopled  from  the  long  wars.  Instead  of  bestow 
ing  the  forfeited  lands  upon  courtiers  and  soldiers  in  large 
tracts,  he  divided  them  into  small  portions,  which  he  granted 
to  settlers,  especially  ordaining  that  "no  one  shall  obtain 
grants  of  land  which  he  is  unable  to  plant  with  men."  This 
was  the  essential  feature  of  his  plan :  the  details  are  not  im 
portant  to  us.  Large  numbers  of  Protestant  Scotchmen, 
who  had  but  to  cross  a  narrow  frith  to  get  to  this  more  genial 
region,  availed  themselves  of  the  king's  wise  procedure.  They 
settled  in  Ulster ;  made  another  and  a  nobler  conquest  of  it 
than  the  royal  troops  had  made ;  intermarried  with  the  na 
tives  of  the  isle ;  and  founded  that  remarkable  race,  which  so 
curiously  blends  diverse  qualities,  and  is  at  once  named  and 
described  by  the  compound,  SCOTCH-IRISH. 

The  Irishman  is  a  very  familiar  character  to  us  all.  His 
rollicking  fan,  his  ready  wit,  his  eloquence,  his  fierce  resent 
ments,  his  ardent  affections,  his  wonderful  sacrifices  for  those 
he  loves,  his  inexact  intellect,  (the  liveliness  of  his  imagina 
tion  overpowering  his  sense  of  truth,)  his  careless  habits  and 
love  of  ease — who  does  not  know  ?  The  truth  is,  the  Irish 
man  belongs  nearer  the  sun,  whence  he  came  ;  where  man  caw- 
lounge,  and  laugh,  and  play  away  half  the  summer  days,  with 
out  being  brought  to  such  a  strict  account  as  that  to  which 
winter  subjects  the  men  of  the  North.  Add  to  the  stern 


32  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON. 

necessities  of  winter,  the  exactions  of  a  northern  land-system, 
and  the  decrees  of  a  long  unsympathizing  government,  and 
you  reduce  the  Irishman  to  the  condition  in  which  we  find 
him  in  the  southern  counties  of  the  green  island. 

But,  if  he  gives  up  the  struggle  of  life,  he  supplies  the 
world  with  half  its  fun  and  fancy :  himself  often  miserable, 
but  always  interesting  and  picturesque ;  the  chosen  of  novel 
ists,  the  delight  of  the  stage,  the  sketching  tourist's  best 
friend,  and  never  wanting  to  the  comic  corner  of  newspapers. 

The  Scotchman,  on  the  contrary,  is  just  the  man  to  ex 
tract  a  livelihood  from  a  hard  soil  and  an  ungenial  clime. 
He  must  have  been  indigenous  to  the  North,  one  would  think. 
The  most  orderly,  the  most  truthful,  the  most  persistent  of 
men ;  slow  to  feel,  though  susceptible  of  the  deepest  feeling ; 
capable  of  enthusiasm,  but  not  easily  roused;  as  brave  as 
the  bravest,  but  unacquainted  with  the  shilalah ;  not  slow 
to  take  offense,  but  moody  in  his  wrath;  not  jocular  nor 
witty,  though  social  and  fond  of  his  own  quaint  and  quiet 
humor.  Sir  Walter  Scott  seems  scarcely  to  do  justice  to  his 
countrymen,  when  he  says  that  they  are  insensible  to  humor. 
"  How  is  it,"  he  asked,  "  that  our  solemn,  proud,  dignified 
Celt,  with  a  soul  so  alive  to  what  is  elevating,  and  even  ele 
gant,  in  poetry  and  feeling,  is  so  super-eminently  dull  as  re 
spects  all  the  lighter  play  of  fancy  ?  The  Highlander  never 
understands  wit  or  humor.  Paddy,  despite  all  his  misery 
and  privations,  overflows  with  both.  I  suppose  he  is  the 
gayest  fellow  in  the  world,  except  the  only  worse-used  one 
still,  the  West  India  nigger/'  * 

The  Scotch-Irish  are  a  tough,  vehement,  good-hearted 
race,  who  have  preserved  in  full  measure  the  Scotch  virtues 
of  honesty,  prudence,  and  perseverance,  but  exhibit  the  show 
ing  traits  of  the  Irish,  subdued  and  diminished.  A  plain, 
simple,  and  pure  people,  formed  to  grapple  with  practical 
affairs ;  in  dealing  with  which  they  often  display  an  impet 
uosity  which  is  Irish,  and  a  persistence  which  is  Scotch. 

*  Lockhart's  Life  of  Scott,  chap.  Ixiii. 


NORTH     OF     IRELANDEBS.  33 

They  have  not  the  taste  or  gift  for  art,  of  which  no  Irishman 
of  pure  blood  seems  to  be  quite  destitute.  Our  traveler  tells 
us,  that  in  the  south  and  middle  of  Ireland,  when  he  was 
sketching  out-of-doors,  he  was  always  surrounded  by  a  crowd 
of  spectators,  watching  the  progress  of  his  picture  with  the 
keenest  delight.  But  in  the  north,  he  might  sketch  all  day 
without  attracting  the  slightest  attention.  The  people  were 
too  busy  to  linger  on  their  way,  and  wholly  indifferent  to  an 
occupation  which  they  would  feel  to  be  a  frivolous  misuse  of 
time.  Their  genius  shines  in  other  pursuits.  They  possess 
a  sturdiness  of  understanding,  and  sometimes  a  certain  quick 
and  piercing  intelligence,  which  throws  a  Drummond  glare 
upon  a  limited  space,  though  it  leaves  the  general  scene  in 
darkness. 

One  trait  in  the  character  of  these  people  demands  the 
particular  attention  of  the  reader.  It  is  their  nature  to  con 
tend  for  what  they  think  is  right  with  peculiar  earnestness. 
Some  of  them,  too,  have  a  knack  of  extracting  from  every 
affair  in  which  they  may  engage,  and  from  every  relation  in 
life  which  they  form,  the  very  largest  amount  of  contention 
which  it  can  be  made  to  yield.  Hot  water  would  seem  to  be 
the  natural  element  of  some  of  them,  for  they  are  always  in 
it.  It  appears  to  be  more  difficult  for  a  North-of-Irelander 
than  for  other  men  to  allow  an  honest  difference  of  opinion 
in  an  opponent ;  so  that  he  is  apt  to  regard  the  terms  oppo 
nent  and  enemy  as  synonymous.  Hence,  in  the  political  and 
sectarian  contests  of  the  present  day,  he  occasionally  exhibits 
a  narrowness,  if  not  ferocity  of  spirit,  such  as  his  forefathers 
manifested  in  the  old  wars  of  the  clans  and  the  borders,  or  in 
the  later  strifes  between  Catholic  and  Protestant.  It  is 
strange  that  so  kind  and  generous  a  people  should  be  so  fierce 
in  contention.  "  Their  factions/'  says  Sir  Walter  Scott, 
speaking  of  the  Irish  generally,  "  have  been  so  long  enven 
omed,  and  they  have  such  a  narrow  ground  to  do  their  battle 
in,  that  they  are  like  people  fighting  with  daggers  in  a  hogs 
head." 

Not  less  envenomed  are  the  controversies  of  the  Scotch- 


34  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON. 

Irish.  Judge  how  much  fighting  blood  lurks  in  the  veins  of 
these  steady-going  weavers  of  linen,  from  the  following  para 
graph  from  Mr.  Thackeray's  inimitable  Sketch-Book  : — 

"  The  three  churches  are  here  pretty  equally  balanced — Presbyterians, 
25,000,  Catholics,  20,000,  Episcopalians,  17,000 ;  each  party  has  two  or 
more  newspaper  organs;  and  the  wars  between  them  are  dire  and  unceas 
ing,  as  the  reader  may  imagine.  For  whereas,  in  other  parts  of  Ireland, 
where  Catholics  and  Episcopalians  prevail,  and  the  Presbyterian  body  is 
too  small,  each  party  has  but  one  opponent  to  belabor;  here,  the  Ulster 
politician,  whatever  may  be  his  way  of  thinking,  has  the  great  advantage 
of  possessing  two  enemies  on  whom  he  may  exercise  his  eloquence ;  and 
in  this  triangular  duel  all  do  their  duty  nobly.  Then  there  are  subdivisions 
of  hostility.  For  the  Church,  there  is  a  High-church  and  a  Low-church 
journal ;  for  the  Liberals,  there  is  a  Repeal  journal  and  a  No-repeal  jour 
nal.  For  the  Presbyterians,  there  are  yet  more  varieties  of  journalist  opin 
ion,  on  which  it  does  not  become  a  stranger  to  pass  judgment.  If  the 
Northern  W^hig  says  that  the  Banner  of  Ulster  '  is  a  polluted  rag  which  has 
hoisted  the  red  banner  of  falsehood/  (which  elegant  words  may  be  found 
in  the  first-named  journal  of  the  13th  October,)  let  us  be  sure  the  Banner 
iias  a  compliment  for  the  Northern  Whig  in  return ;  if  the  Repeal  Vindi 
cator  and  the  priests  attack  the  Presbyterian  journals  and  the  Home  Mis 
sions,  the  reverend  gentlemen  of  Geneva  are  quite  as  ready  with  the  pen 
as  their  brethren  of  Rome,  and  not  much  more  scrupulous  in  their  lan 
guage  than  the  laity.  When  I  was  in  Belfast,  violent  disputes  were  raging 
between  Presbyterian  and  Episcopalian  Conservatives  with  regard  to  the 
Marriage  Bill ;  between  Presbyterians  and  Catholics  on  the  subject  of  the 
Home  Missions ;  between  the  Liberals  and  Conservatives,  of  course."* 

All  this  shows  a  people  earnest  and  sincere  in  their  con 
victions,  capable  of  taking  the  deepest  interest  in  subjects 
which  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  price  of  linen. 

And  these  very  people,  apart  from  their  strifes,  are  singu 
larly  tender  in  their  feelings,  liberal  in  gifts  and  hospitality, 
and  most  easy  to  be  entreated.  On  great  questions,  too, 
which  lift  the  mind  above  sectarian  trivialities,  they  will,  as 
a  people,  be  invariably  found  on  the  anti-diabolic  side : 
equally  strenuous  for  liberty  and  for  law,  against  "  mobs  and 
monarchs,  lords  and  levelers,"  as  one  of  their  own  stump  ora- 

*  Irish  Sketch-Book,  vol.  ii.,  chap.  xii. 


NORTH     OF     1RELANDERS.  35 

tors  expressed  it.  The  name  which  Bulwer  bestows  upon 
one  of  his  characters,  Stick-to-rights,  describes  every  genuine 
son  of  Ulster. 

A  curious  humor,  however,  relieves  the  rough  and  bristling 
character  of  these  people.  Their  clergymen,  for  example, 
will  utter  dry  jokes  upon  points  of  theology,  which  would 
shock  the  divines  of  a  graver  race  ;  but,  with  the  light  of  the 
jest  still  playing  about  their  faces,  they  would  go  to  the 
stake  for  their  faith,  or  cleave  the  skull  of  a  Catholic  who 
stood  in  arms  against  it. 

It  is  to  be  observed,  also,  of  these  remarkable  people,  that 
the  two  races  whose  good  and  less  good  qualities  they  share, 
are  blended  in  different  proportions  in  every  individual. 
Some  are  Scotch-Irish,  and  others  are  Irish-Scotch.  Some 
come  to  their  Scotch  traits  only  after  sowing  a  plentiful  crop 
of  the  most  Irish  wild-oats.  Some  are  canny  Scots  in  re 
pose,  and  wildly  Irish  in  contention.  Some,  at  times  of  keen 
excitement,  exhibit,  in  a  surprising  manner,  an  Irish  dash 
and  daring,  controlled  by  Scottish  wariness.  And  some  will 
imbibe  an  opinion  or  a  prejudice  with  Irish  readiness,  and 
then  cling  to  it  with  Scotch  tenacity. 

It  could  not  but  be  that  a  race  so  bold  and  enterprising 
should  have  contributed  its  proportion  to  the  tide  of  emigra 
tion  which  has  peopled  America.  Transferred  to  the  wider 
sphere  afforded  on  this  continent,  the  North-of-Irelanders 
have,  upon  the  whole,  done  great  honor  to  their  blood  and 
instincts,  their  love  of  liberty  and  regard  for  right.  Such  of 
them  as  have  attained  distinction  here  have  done  so,  not  so 
much  by  originality  of  thought  or  project,  as  by  originality 
of  career.  There  is  an  abounding  energy  in  these  men  which 
enables  them  to  do  ordinary  things  in  an  extraordinary  and 
memorable  manner  ;  exhibiting  a  rare  union  of  enterprise, 
perseverance  and  prudence.  In  most  of  them  there  is  a  touch 
of  eccentricity. 

Among  the  men  of  North-of-Ireland  stock  whose  names 
are  familiar  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  the  following 
may  serve  to  illustrate  some  of  the  foregoing  remarks  :  John 


36  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON. 

Stark  ;  Kobert  Fulton  ;  John  C.  Calhoun  ;  Sam  Houston  ; 
David  Crockett  ;  Hugh  L.  White  ;  James  K.  Polk  ;  Patrick 
Bronte  ;  Horace  Greeley  ;  Robert  Bonner  ;  A.  T.  Stewart ; 
Andrew  Jackson. 


CHAPTER     II. 

CARRICKFERGUS. 

CARRICKFERGUS  is  an  old,  old  town  on  the  northern  coast 
of  Ireland,  nine  miles  from  Belfast  ;  which  latter  was  an  un 
known  hamlet  when  Carrickfergus  was  one  of  the  antiquities 
of  Europe.  The  name  means  Crag  of  Fergus.  A  rocky 
promontory  extends  into  the  bay  there,  upon  which,  some 
time  between  the  Flood  and  Anno  Domini,  one  king  Fergus 
was  cast  away  and  drowned.  His  body  was  tossed  upon  the 
Crag  by  the  waves,  and  the  place  has  ever  since  borne  his 
name.  In  the  course  of  ages,  a  castle  was  built  upon  this 
commanding  height ;  a  little  town  gathered  at  its  base  along 
the  shore,  which  was  walled  by  sods  and  stone  ;  and  tue 
Crag  of  Fergus,  during  the  centuries  of  the  battle-ax,  was 
the  stronghold  of  the  north  of  Ireland.  How  often  it  was 
attacked  by  land  and  sea,  by  Scot,  by  English,  and  by  native 
king  ;  how  many  times  it  was  besieged  and  stormed  and 
razed  and  rebuilt ;  what  ancient  kings  held  there  their  rude 
court ;  how  often  it  was  the  sole  place  of  refuge  in  a  province 
ravaged  by  war  ;  how  long  it  was  the  terror  of  that  province 
when  it  had  been  conquered,  but  would  not  submit ;  many  an 
Irish  chronicler  has  essayed  to  record. 

When  the  trading  era  dawned,  and  the  battle-ax  began 
to  give  precedence  to  the  shuttle  and  the  improved  plow, 
Carrickfergus  was  outstripped  by  its  young  neighbor  Belfast, 
and  lost  much  of  its  importance.  A  hundred  years  ago, 
when  our  interest  in  it  commences,  it  was  a  third-rate  seaport 


CARRICKFERGUS.  37 

town,  of  a  thousand  inhabitants,  supported  chiefly  by  fishing 
and  the  manufacture  of  linen.  The  old  castle  on  the  crag 
was  falling  to  ruin,  and  was  garrisoned  only  by  a  hundred 
and  fifty  men.  Small  farmers  tilled  the  adjacent  land.  The 
music  of  the  loom  was  heard  in  nearly  every  house  of  town 
and  country.  Carrickfergus  was  remarkable  for  nothing  but 
the  orderly  diligence  of  its  people,  and  the  chronic  fury  with 
which  they  carried  on  the  party  contests  of  the  day. 

In  this  town  and  its  vicinity,  for  an  unknown  number  of 
generations,  lived  the  forefathers  of  Andrew  Jackson.  An 
drew  Jackson's  grandfather,  Hugh  Jackson,  was  a  linen- 
draper  there  in  the  year  1660,  and  suffered  in  a  "  siege"  of 
the  town  which  occurred  in  that  year.  Hugh  Jackson  was 
the  father  of  four  sons,  all  of  whom  were  settled  in  the  neigh 
borhood  as  farmers.  The  youngest  of  his  sons,  Andrew  by 
name,  the  father  of  the  subject  of  this  work,  was  a  married 
man  in  1765,  and  had  two  sons,  Hugh  and  Kobert.  Beyond 
these  few  facts,  which  were  derived  from  General  Jackson's 
recollection  of  conversations  with  his  mother,  nothing  is 
known,  or  can  now  be  discovered,  of  the  Jacksons  in  Car 
rickfergus. 

The  siege  of  Carrickfergus,  which  figures  as  a  terrible 
affair  in  some  of  the  biographies  of  General  Jackson,  was,  in 
reality,  of  so  trifling  a  nature  as  to  be  almost  ridiculous. 
After  the  fierce  and  bloody  storming  of  the  town  in  1689,  by 
the  adherents  of  King  William,  Carrickfergus  enjoyed  repose, 
disturbed  only  by  a  brief  flurry  of  alarm  in  1745,  when  a 
rumor  prevailed  that  the  Pretender  was  coming.  The  loyal 
Protestants  of  Carrickfergus  formed  new  companies  of  militia 
and  prepared  to  defend  the  place.  But  the  Pretender  came 
not,  and  the  town  soon  fell  again  into  the  even  tenor  of  its 
way.  Fifteen  years  passed,  in  which  there  was  neither  war 
nor  rumor  of  war.  One  morning  in  February,  1760,  to  the 
equal  astonishment  and  consternation  of  the  people,  a  French 
fleet,  of  three  large  armed  vessels,  sailed  into  the  bay,  and, 
anchoring  near  the  town,  proceeded  to  land  a  force  of  seven 
hundred  troops.  The  officer  in  command  of  the  castle  would 


38  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON. 

have  yielded  without  a  struggle,  had  not  the  valiant  mayor 
of  the  town  insisted,  Jackson-like,  on  his  making  a  defense. 
The  French  marched  in,  and  assaulted  the  castle  ;  where 
they  were  so  warmly  received  that  fifty  of  their  number  fell 
dead  before  the  gate,  and  fifty  more  were  wounded.  They 
retired  to  the  shelter  of  the  adjoining  houses.  But  the  gar 
rison  having  expended  their  ammunition,  were  compelled 
to  parley  ;  which  terminated  in  surrender  upon  honorable 
terms.  When  all  was  over,  it  appeared  that  the  fleet  had 
put  in  in  distress  for  provisions  ;  upon  obtaining  a  supply  of 
which  from  Belfast,  it  took  its  peaceful  departure,  and  was 
captured,  a  few  days  after,  by  an  English  squadron  in  the 
Channel. 

The  good  people  of  Carrickfergus  were  much  frightened, 
but  little  hurt  by  this  bold  dash  of  the  French  commodore. 
"  On  the  first  alarm  of  an  enemy  intending  to  attack  the 
town,"  says  the  local  historian,  "  some  timid  people  fled  ; 
and  those  who  remained  generally  shut  up  their  doors  and 
windows,  and  quietly  remained  within.  In  the  evening, 
guards  were  stationed  on  the  different  roads  leading  into  the 
town,  and  sentinels  placed  on  the  houses  of  the  principal  in 
habitants  to  prevent  their  being  plundered  ;  yet  many  houses 
were  broken  into  and  despoiled  of  their  most  valuable  effects, 
and  even  the  church  was  robbed  of  its  plate.  During  the 
night,  so  many  of  the  enemy  were  intoxicated  in  houses  or 
about  the  streets,  that  fifty  resolute  men  could  have  made 
them  all  prisoners."* 

The  Irish  Parliament  afterwards  granted  four  thousand 
two  hundred  pounds  to  compensate  the  people  for  their  losses, 
of  which  sum  six  hundred  pounds  was  returned  to  the  gov 
ernment  ;  an  act  characteristic  of  this  most  honest  race. 
The  ^  sufferings"  of  Hugh  Jackson  in  the  siege  of  Carrick 
fergus  could  not  have  been  very  severe  or  prolonged.  The 
presence,  however,  of  a  regiment  of  drunken  soldiers,  and 
their  midnight  plunderings,  may  have  left  an  impression  of 

*  McSkimin's  History  of  Carrickfergus,  page  84. 


CARRICKFERGUS.  39 

terror  upon  the  mind  of  General  Jackson's  mother,  which 
caused  the  siege  to  assume  great  importance  in  her  narratives 
of  the  old  country.  The  siege,  it  appears,  was  duly  cele- 
brated  or  burlesqued  in  a  play,  a  ballad  and  a  pantomime, 
which  were  long  familiar  to  the  people  of  Carrickfergus  and 
Belfast.  Snatches  of  the  ballad  were  among  the  lullaby 
songs  with  which  the  mother  of  General  Jackson  soothed  her 
children  to  sleep. 

The  history  of  Carrickfergus  by  Mr.  McSkimin  enjoys 
some  celebrity  in  Ireland  as  one  of  the  best  works  of  its  kind 
extant.  It  is  certainly  executed  with  extraordinary  labor 
and  pains.  A  leading  feature  of  this  wrork  is  its  numerous 
lists  of  names  ;  lists  of  mayors,  members  of  Parliament,  free 
men  of  the  town,  juries,  collectors  of  the  port,  clergymen,  old 
people,  tradesmen,  artificers  and  others.  The  book  contains 
many  thousands  of  the  names  of  people  who  have  lived  and 
flourished  in  Carrickfergus.  So  many,  indeed,  that  scarcely 
a  family  of  the  slightest  note  or  importance  can  have  escaped 
mention.  Upon  searching  this  voluminous  work  for  some 
trace  of  the  family  of  General  Jackson,  I  find  the  name  re 
corded  but  once.  In  a  small  foot-note  appended  to  the  ac 
count  of  a  transaction  which  took  place  in  1708,  the  name, 
John  Jackson,  occurs  in  a  list  of  the  grand  jury  of  the  county. 
Whether  this  John  Jackson  was  a  connection  of  the  family 
in  which  we  are  interested,  can  not  be  known.  But  one  thing 
is  certain,  there  is  no  transaction  mentioned  in  Mr.  McSkim- 
in's  book  in  which  an  ancestor  of  General  Jackson  would 
have  been  more  likely  to  take  part  than  that  with  which  we 
find  the  name  of  John  Jackson  associated. 

Party  spirit,  during  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  raged  in 
Carrickfergus.  Whig  and  tory,  churchmen  and  dissenters, 
were  peculiarly  embittered  against  each  other  in  a  town 
where  the  energetic  business  men  were  whigs  and  dissenters, 
and  the  presence  of  a  garrison,  and  the  residence  of  a  noble 
family  or  two  gave  a  certain  assurance  and  audacity  to  the 
"  high-flying"  tories.  The  grand  object  of  the  dissenters  was 
the  repeal  of  the  Test  Act,  which  placed  them  under  several 


40  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON. 

odious  disabilities.  In  1708,  the  "  quarter-sessions  grand 
jury"  of  the  county  unanimously  signed  an  address  to  the 
queen,  recounting  the  grievances  of  the  act,  and  urging  its 
repeal.  It  is  mentioned  as  an  extraordinary  piece  of  conde 
scension  on  the  part  of  Queen  Anne,  that  she  received  this 
address  graciously,  and  permitted  its  publication  in  the  Ga 
zette.  The  tories  of  Carrickfergus,  upon  learning  that  the 
queen  had  bestowed  "  such  a  distinction,"  as  Mr.  McSkimin 
styles  it,  upon  the  dissenters,  were  indignant,  and  gave  out 
that  the  address  was  a  forgery,  and  so  denounced  it  in  the 
Flying  Post.  Whereupon,  the  grand  jury  issued  a  certifi 
cate  or  proclamation  of  its  genuineness,  signed  by  each  juror. 
One  of  the  jurors  thus  signing  was  John  Jackson.  And  this 
is  the  only  glimmer  of  light  upon  our  subject  which  the  his 
tory  of  Carrickfergus  affords. 

Upon  the  general  character  of  the  people  inhabiting  that 
corner  of  Ireland,  Mr.  McSkimin  gives  us  much  information. 
Note  well  these  illustrations  of  the  party  spirit  which  pre 
vailed  in  Carrickfergus  when  General  Jackson's  father  was  a 
school-boy : 

"  The  government  being  apprehensive  that  the  Pretender  meditated 
the  invasion  of  some  part  of  these  kingdoms,  an  array  of  the  militia  of  this 
place  was  ordered,  in  common  with  those  of  the  county  of  Antrim.  Soon 
after,  the  Rev.  Edward  Mathews,  curate  of  Carrickfergus,  circulated  a  re 
port  that  the  Rev.  Patrick  Adair  had  left  the  town  when  the  militia  were 
about  to  be  sworn  in,  although  requested  to  stay  by  the  mayor,  who 
dreaded  a  disturbance  among  the  dissenters,  on  account  of  a  false  report 
having  gone  abraad,  that '  they  must  all  swear  to  be  Churchmen.'  This 
statement,  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  Mathews,  also  appeared  in  the  pamphlet 
called  '  The  Conduct  of  the  Dissenters  ;'  but  was  immediately  contradicted, 
not  only  by  Mr.  Adair,  but  also  by  Richard  Horseman,  mayor,  and  Wil 
liam  Wilkinson,  a  respectable  inhabitant.  These  false  reports,  as  might 
be  expected,  led  to  some  disagreeable  incidents.  Mr.  Mathews  and  Mr. 
Adair,  meeting  soon  after  at  the  south  end  of  Essex  street,  had  such  warm 
words  respecting  the  above  statement,  that  blows  ensued — when  the 
former  is  said  to  have  been  overcome. 

"  Tradition  likewise  affirms,  that  in  the  summer  of  1714,  the  tories 
went  so  far  as  to  take  up  by  force  the  Dissenters'  Catechism,  when  ex 
posed  for  sale  in  the  market-place,  and  even  threatened  to  nail  up  their 


CARRICKFERGUS.  41 

place  of  worship ;  and  that  a  military  officer,  proceeding  to  put  this  threat 
into  execution,  fell  dead  on  Gravott's  bridge,  West  street. 

"  The  rancorous  spirit  of  intolerance  and  persecution  appears  to  have 
been  pretty  generally  abroad  about  this  time.  On  the  17th  July,  same 
year,  the  grand  jury  of  the  county  of  Antrim  assembled  at  assize,  with 
other  gentlemen  and  freeholders  of  said  county,  prepared  an  address,  to  be 
presented  to  her  Majesty  Queen  Anne.  In  this  address,  they  highly  ap 
proved  of  the  before-mentioned  test ;  strongly  reprobated  any  secession 
from  the  established  Church ;  and  declared  their  unshaken  loyalty  to  her 
1  Sacred  Majesty,'  in  opposition  to  those  who,  as  they  said,  would  '  transfer 
it  to  their  Sovereign  Lord — THE  PEOPLE.'  They  concluded  by  declaring 
that  they  would,  '  with  the  utmost  zeal  and  indignation,  pursue  those  fac 
tious  spirits,'  whom  they  represented  as  endeavoring  to  undermine  the 
throne.  Her  Majesty  died  on  the  1st  August  following,  and  this  address 
fell  to  the  ground. 

"  The  news  of  her  Majesty's  decease  was  received  here  by  those  par 
ties  with  very  opposite  sensations.  Some  of  the  whigs  flew  to  the  parish 
church,  and  began  ringing,  on  its  bell,  '  a  merry  peal.'  " 

The  reader  is  not  to  infer  from  such  scenes  as  these,  that 
the  citizens  of  Carrickfergus  loved  contention  for  its  own  sake. 
The  grievances  of  which  the  dissenters  complained  were  such 
as  a  high-spirited  people  can  not  submit  to  in  silence.  The 
dissenters,  largely  in  the  majority  as  they  were,  were  denied 
participation  in  the  government,  were  taxed  for  the  support 
of  the  established  Church,  and  were  scarcely  recognized  as 
fellow-subjects  by  the  dominant  party.  In  later  days,  since 
the  most  offensive  of  the  distinctions  between  dissenters  and 
churchmen  have  been  abolished,  they  have  lived  in  compara 
tive  peace  and  friendliness  with  the  still  privileged  sect.  At 
least,  there  is  no  further  record  of  the  Church  curate  and  the 
dissenting  clergyman  coming  to  blows  in  the  street. 

As  early  as  1756,  when  the  father  of  General  Jackson 
may  have  been  old  enough  to  be  a  member  of  it,  there  was  a 
Patriot  Club  in  Carrickfergus,  which  declared  in  its  Plan  of 
Association,  that  it  was  ready  "  to  defend  the  king  and  con 
stitution,"  and  to  oppose  "  all  measures  tending  to  infringe 
the  Sacred  Right  of  the  People."  Mr.  McSkimin's  work  con 
tains  abundant  proof  of  his  assertion,  that  the  people  of  Car 
rickfergus  "  have  evinced  a  due  share  of  public  spirit,  which 


42  LIFE     OF      ANDREW     JACKSON. 

has  been  always  conspicuous  when  the  interests  of  the  nation 
appeared  to  be  concerned.  On  those  occasions,  they  have 
ever  been  amongst  the  foremost  to  declare  their  approbation 
or  disapprobation  of  the  measure  in  question ;  and  have  in 
variably  supported  the  popular  side,  as  far  as  in  their  power." 
The  people  in  the  adjacent  country  appear  to  have  been 
remarkably  simple  in  their  character  and  manners.  When 
Andrew  Jackson,  the  elder,  tilled  his  few  hired  acres  there,  a 
hundred  years  ago,  the  people  still  believed  in  witches,  fairies, 
brownies,  wraiths,  evil  eyes,  charms,  and  warning  spirits. 
They  had  only  just  done  trying  people  for  witchcraft ;  and 
the  ducking-stool  for  scolding  wives*  still  existed,  and  may 
have  been  occasionally  used.  They  nailed  horse-shoes  to  the 
bottoms  of  their  churns ;  they  had  faith  in  a  seventh  son ; 
they  trembled  when  a  mirror  was  broken,  or  a  dog  howled ; 
they  undertook  no  enterprise  on  Friday,  nor  would  change 
their  residence  on  Saturday.  Some  of  their  customs,  as  de 
scribed  by  the  historian  of  Carrickfergus,  were  exceedingly 
curious.  The  following  may  interest  some  of  their  innumer 
able  descendants  in  the  United  States : — 


"A  kind  of  punishment  was  formerly  inflicted  occasionally,  called 
Riding  the  Stang,  meaning  riding-  upon  a  sting,  that  is,  receiving  chastise 
ment  for  some  offense  of  which  the  common  law  did  not  take  any  cog 
nizance.  On  those  occasions  some  low  fellow,  who  represented  the  delin 
quent,  was  mounted  on  a  long  pole  carried  on  men's  shoulders,  and  in  this 
way  he  was  taken  about  the  streets,  the  bearers  occasionally  halting,  and 
he  making  loud  proclamation  of  the  person's  real  or  alleged  offense,  the 
crowd  huzzaing.  They  afterwards  repaired  to  the  residence  of  the  of 
fender,  where  a  grand  proclamation  was  made  of  his  crime,  or  misde 
meanor  ;  after  which  the  company  dispersed,  giving  three  hearty  cheers. 

"  Although  the  people  are  generally  Protestants,  yet  if  a  person  is  sud 
denly  deranged,  or  a  child  overseen,  the  lower  orders  rarely  apply  to  their 

*  The  following  is  an  extract  from  the  ancient  records  of  Oarrickfergus : — 
"  October,  1574,  ordered  and  agreede  by  the  hole  Court,  that  all  manner  of 
Skoldes  which  Shal  be  openly  detected  of  Skolding  or  evill  wordes  in  manner  of 
Skolding,  &  for  the  same  shal  be  condemned  before  Mr.  Maior  and  his  brethren, 
Shal  be  drawne  at  the  Sterne  of  a  boate  in  the  water  from  the  ende  of  the  Peare 
rounde  abought  the  Queenes  majesties  Casscll  in  manner  of  ducking,"  etc.,  etc. 


CARRICKFERGUS.  43 

own  minister  for  relief,  but  to  some  Roman  Catholic  priest,  and  receive 
from  him  what  is  termed  a  priest's  book.  This  book,  or  paper,  is  sowed  in 
the  clothes  of  the  afflicted  person,  or  worn  as  an  amulet  about  the  neck ; 
if  lost,  a  second  book  is  never  given  to  the  same  person. 

<:  On  the  death  of  a  person,  the  nearest  neighbors  cease  working  till  the 
coipse  is  interred.  Within  the  house  where  the  deceased  is,  the  dishes, 
and  all  other  kitchen  utensils,  are  removed  from  the  shelves,  or  dressers; 
looking-glasses  are  covered  or  taken  down,  clocks  are  stopped,  and  their 
dial-plates  covered.  Except  in  cases  deemed  very  infectious,  the  corpse  is 
always  kept  one  night,  and  sometimes  two.  This  sitting  with  the  corpse 
is  called  the  Wake,  from  Like-wake  (Scottish),  the  meeting  of  the  friends 
of  the  deceased  before  the  funeral.  Those  meetings  are  generally  con 
ducted  with  great  decorum ;  portions  of  the  Scriptures  are  read,  and  fre 
quently  a  prayer  is  pronounced,  and  a  psalm  given  out  fitting  for  the  sol 
emn  occasion.  Pipes  and  tobacco  are  always  laid  out  on  a  table,  and 
spirits  or  other  refreshments  are  distributed  during  the  night.  If  a  dog  or 
cat  passes  over  the  dead  body,  it  is  immediately  killed,  as  it  is  believed 
that  the  first  person  it  would  pass  over  afterwards,  would  take  the  falling 
sickness.  A  plate  with  salt  is  frequently  set  on  the  breast  of  the  corpse, 
and  is  said  to  keep  the  same  from  swelling. 

"  On  Shrove  Tuesday,  called  also  Fasteris  e'en,  or  pancake  eve,  it  is 
customary  to  eat  pancakes.  Formerly  the  barbarous  practice  of  throwing 
sticks  at  cocks  was  practiced  on  this  day.  The  devoted  bird  was  tied  to  a 
stake,  and  persons  standing  off  a  few  perches,  threw  at  him  with  a  staff, 
his  brutal  owner  receiving  one  penny  for  each  throw  till  he  was  killed. 
The  custom  ceased  about  1794. 

"  Easter  Monday  is  a  day  of  very  general  festivity,  and  on  it  cock 
fights  are  usually  held.  In  the  afternoon,  if  the  weather  is  fine,  young 
men  and  women  resort  to  a  green,  south  of  the  town,  called  Ranbuy,  and 
ioin  in  some  rustic  sport,  which  concludes  by  their  return  into  town  late  in 
the  evening,  playing  thread  the  needle.  Same  day,  children  dye  eggs  vari 
ous  colors,  and  repairing  to  some  gentle  declivity,  trundle  them  till  they 
break,  on  which  they  are  eaten. 

"  On  May  eve,  young  boys  and  girls  resort  to  the  fields  and  gather 
Mayflowers,  which  they  spread  outside  of  their  doors.  Sprigs  of  rowan 
tree  were  formerly  gathered  same  eve,  and  stuck  above  the  inside  of  the 
out-door  heads,  to  keep  off  the  witches.  The  herb  yarrow  (milfoliurn)  is 
gathered  to  cause  young  girls  to  dream  of  their  future  husbands.  Some 
females  who  have  cows,  rise  very  early  on  May  morning,  and  proceed  to 
the  nearest  spring  well,  and  bring  home  a  portion  of  its  water.  This  is 
called,  '  getting  the  flower  of  the  well,'  and  those  who  practice  it  believe 
that  their  cattle  are  thus  secured  against  charms  for  that  season. 

"  In  harvest,  when  the  last  of  the  farmer's  corn  is  about  to  be  cut,  a 


44  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON. 

small  portion  of  the  best  is  plaited  and  bound  up.  The  men  then  stand  at 
a  certain  distance,  and  throw  their  hooks  at  it  till  it  is  cut,  on  which  they 
give  three  cheers.  This  is  generally  called  winning  the  churn,  but  in  some 
parts  of  the  parish  it. is  called  the  hare.  It  is  carried  home  and  laid  above 
the  door :  the  name  of  the  first  young  woman  who  enters  afterwards,  it  is 
said,  will  be  that  of  the  wife  of  the  young  man  who  has  put  it  there.  A 
like  custom  is  observed  in  Devonshire,  and  in  all  likelihood  it  came  here 
with  the  settlers  from  thence. 

"  On  winning  the  churn,  the  reapers  are  usually  regaled  with  a  special 
feast,  also  called  the  churn.  Formerly  this  feast  consisted  of  a  profusion 
of  homely  fare,  such  as  bread,  cheese,  butter,  cream,  etc.,  and  generally 
concluded  with  a  dance,  the  master  and  mistress  joining  without  distinc 
tion  in  the  general  festivity.  Of  late  years,  this  rustic  feast  has  been  cor 
rupted  by  the  introduction  of  tea  and  whiskey,  and  the  former  simplicity 
of  the  entertainment  is  in  a  great  measure  lost. 

"  Formerly  a  custom  prevailed,  which  was  termed  calling  the  Waits. 
A  short  time  before  Christmas,  young  men  or  boys  assembled  each  morn 
ing  about  five  o'clock,  and  proceeded  with  music  to  the  houses  of  the  most 
respectable  persons,  where  they  played  some  lively  tunes.  One  of  the 
party  then  bade  good  morning  to  each  of  those  within,  beginning  with  the 
master,  and  ending  by  calling  out  the  hour  of  the  morning,  and  state  of 
the  weather.  These  visits  were  continued  till  some  days  after  Christmas, 
when  they  called  in  daylight,  and  received  a  donation  in  silver,  which  was 
always  spent  in  the  ale-house.  This  custom  ceased  in  1796,  or  1797,  when 
all  nocturnal  meetings  were  prohibited. 

"Late  on  Christmas  eve,  young  men  and  boys  assemble  and  collect 
carts,  cars,  gates,  boats,  planks,  etc.,  with  which  they  block  up  the  Irish  or 
West  gate  of  this  town.  There  is  a  vague  tradition  that  the  custom  origin 
ated  in  the  Protestant  inhabitants  shutting  the  gates  on  the  Roman  Catho 
lics,  when  they  went  out  to  mass  on  Christmas  eve. 

"  Within  memory,  it  was  common  with  boys  to  assemble  early  at  their 
school-house  on  the  morning  before  Christmas,  and  to  bar  out  the  master, 
who  was  not  admitted  till  he  promised  a  certain  number  of  days'  vacation. 
Early  on  Christmas  day,  the  boys  set  out  to  the  country  in  parties  of  eight  to 
twelve,  armed  with  staves  or  bludgeons,  killing  and  carrying  off  such  fowls 
as  came  in  their  way.  These  were  taken  to  their  respective  school-rooms, 
and  dressed  the  following  day.  To  this  feast  many  persons  were  invited, 
who  furnished  liquors,  or  other  necessaries ;  the  entertainment  usually 
continued  for  several  days.  As  civilization  increased,  these  marauding 
feasts  became  less  popular. 

"  During  the  Christmas  holidays  it  is  yet  common  with  young  boys  to 
assemble  at  night,  fantastically  dressed  with  paper  ornaments,  and  to  pro 
ceed  to  the  different  houses,  each  repeating  in  turn  the  words  of  some 


CARRICKFERGUS.  45 

character  in  the  well-known  Christmas  rhymes.  After  these  orations, 
halfpence  are  solicited,  and  usually  given,  which  are  spent  in  liquors  or 
sweetmeats. 

"  Formerly  great  numbers  of  men  and  boys  resorted  to  the  fields  on 
tliis  day  to  play  at  shinny,  which  game  was  sometimes  warmly  contested 
between  the  inhabitants  of  different  townlands ;  the  custom  has  almost  en 
tirely  ceased,  a  few  boys  only  assembling  to  this  diversion. 

"  The  following  things  are  generally  observed  here  as  prognostics  of 
the  weather,  on  which  the  moon  is  believed  to  have  great  influence  at  all 
seasons.  If  the  new  moon  appears  with  her  disk  nearly  upright,  or  what 
is  termed  on  her  back,  rough  weather  is  considered  certain  during  her 
time.  Saturday's  change  is  thought  to  forebode  storms  and  rain  ;  hence 
the  remark,  '  a  Saturday's  change  is  enough  in  seven  years.'  At  the  full 
and  quarters  of  the  moon's  age,  change  of  weather  is  expected.  When  a 
circle  appears  about  the  moon,  called  a  trough,  stormy  weather  is  looked 
for  within  twenty-four  hours ;  hence  it  is  said,  l  a  far  off  trough  and  a  near 
hand  storm.'  If  small  floating  white  clouds  appear,  which  are  called  cat 
hair,  rain  is  looked  for  next  day ;  and  when  a  meteor  is  seen  at  night, 
called  a  shot  star,  it  is  thought  that  it  will  be  wet  or  stormy  the  day  fol 
lowing. 

"  The  singing  of  the  red-breast  in  the  evening  on  the  top  of  a  tree  or 
bush,  is  deemed  a  token  of  fine  weather.  Swallows  flying  low  are  believed 
to  indicate  rain ;  flying  high,  the  reverse.  The  dor-beetle,  or  bum-clock, 
seen  abroad  in  the  evening,  is  supposed  to  forebode  good  weather.  When 
the  roaring  of  Strangford  bar  is  heard  in  this  lough  by  the  fishers,  they 
conclude  that  the  wind  will  blow  hard  from  the  south.  If  Scotland  is  dis 
tinctly  seen  with  the  naked  eye,  and  the  Copeland  Islands  appear  high,  a 
gale  is  expected  from  the  eastward.  When  the  sun  appears  nearly  encom 
passed  by  a  circle,  severe  weather  is  expected,  and  the  wind  from  that 
direction  where  the  breach  was  in  the  circle.  If  a  figure  appears  in  the 
morning  in  the  clouds,  like  part  of  a  rainbow,  which  the  fishers  call  a  Dog, 
they  expect  stormy  weather ;  if  seen  in  the  evening,  the  reverse ; — hence 
their  adage, 

"  '  A  dog  at  night  is  a  sailor's  delight, 

A  dog  in  the  morning  will  bark  before  night' 

"  By  some,  this  appearance  is  called  a  weather-gaw.  If  a  star  is  seen 
near  the  moon,  which  they  call  Hurlbassey,  tempestuous  weather  is  looked 
for  by  them." 

Among  the   descendants   of   the    Scotch-Irish  in   New 
Hampshire  and  North  Carolina,  some  traces  of  these  rustic 
customs  and  beliefs  may  still  be  observed.     General  Jackson 
VOL.  i. — 4 


46  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1765. 

himself,  to  the  end  of  his  life,  never  liked  to  begin  any  thing 
of  consequence  on  Friday,  and  would  not,  if  it  could  be 
avoided  without  serious  injury  to  some  important  interest. 


C  HAPTER     III. 

THE     EMIGRANTS. 

IN  1765,  Andrew  Jackson  the  elder,  with  his  wife  and 
two  sons,  emigrated  to  America.  He  was  accompanied  by 
three  of  his  neighbors,  James,  Robert,  and  Joseph  Crawford, 
the  first-named  of  whom  was  his  brother-in-law.  The  peace 
between  France  and  England,  signed  two  years  before,  which 
ended  the  "  old  French  war" — the  war  in  which  Braddock 
was  defeated  and  Canada  won — had  restored  to  mankind  their 
highway,  the  ocean,  and  given  an  impulse  to  emigration  from 
the  old  world  to  the  new.  From  the  north  of  Ireland  large 
numbers  sailed  away  to  the  land  of  promise.  Five  sisters  of 
Mrs.  Jackson  had  gone,  or  were  soon  going.  Samuel  Jack 
son,  a  brother  of  Andrew,  afterwards  went,  and  established 
himself  in  Philadelphia,  where  he  long  lived,  a  respectable 
citizen.  Mrs.  Suffren,  a  daughter  of  another  brother,  fol 
lowed  in  later  years,  and  settled  in  New  York,  where  she  has 
living  descendants.""" 

When  Andrew  Jackson  emigrated,  George  III.  had 
reigned  five  years.  America  was  resisting  the  Stamp  Act, 
which  was  repealed  a  year  later  when  Chatham  came  into 
power,  and  Franklin  had  borne  his  testimony  against  it  at 
the  bar  of  the  House  of  Commons.  Frederic  II.  was  begin 
ning  to  be  "  called  the  Great,"  and  the  death  of  Pompadour 
had  just  left  the  throne  of  France  vacant.  Washington  was 
learning  how  to  govern  himself  and  his  country  in  the  school 

*  Kendall's  Life  of  Jackson,  page  10. 


1765.]  THEE  MIGRANTS.  47 

in  which  genuine  statesmanship  is  learned — the  management 
of  a  private  estate. 

Andrew  Jackson  was  a  poor  man,  and  his  wife,  Elizabeth 
Hutehinson,  was  a  poor  man's  daughter.  The  tradition  is 
clear  and  credible  among  the  numerous  descendants  of  Mrs. 
Jackson's  sisters,  that  their  lot  in  Ireland  was  a  hard  one. 
They  were  weavers  of  linen,  the  price  of  which  fluctuated  in 
the  early  day  of  its  manufacture  more  injuriously  than  it  now 
does.  The  grandchildren  of  the  Hutchinson  sisters  remember 
hearing  their  mothers  often  say,  that  in  Ireland  some  of  these 
girls  were  compelled  to  labor  half  the  night,  and  sometimes 
all  night,  in  order  to  produce  the  requisite  quantity  of  linen. 
Linen- weaving  was  their  employment  both  before  and  after 
marriage ;  the  men  of  the  families  tilling  small  farms  at  high 
rents,  and  the  women  toiling  at  the  loom.  The  members  of 
this  circle  were  not  all  equally  poor.  There  is  reason  to  be 
lieve  that  some  of  them  brought  to  America  sums  of  money 
which  were  considerable  for  that  day,  and  sufficient  to  enable 
them  to  buy  negroes  as  well  as  lands  in  the  southern  wilder 
ness.  But  all  accounts  concur  in  this :  that  Andrew  Jackson 
was  very  poor,  both  in  Ireland  and  in  America.  Besides 
this,  tradition  has  nothing  of  importance  to  communicate 
respecting  him,  except  that  he  and  his  wife  were  Presbyteri 
ans,  as  their  fathers  were  before  them.  The  Hutchinson  sis 
ters,  however,  are  remembered  as  among  the  most  thrifty, 
industrious  and  capable  of  a  race  remarkable  for  those  quali 
ties.  There  is  a  smack  of  the  North-Irish  brogue  still  to  be 
observed  in  the  speech  of  their  grandchildren  and  great-grand 
children.  "He  went  till  Charleston,"  and  "there  never  was 
seen  the  like  of  him  for  mischief,"  are  specimens  of  their  talk. 
General  Jackson  himself,  to  a  very  nice  ear,  occasionally  be 
trayed  his  lineage  by  the  slightest  possible  twang  of  Scotch- 
Irish  pronunciation. 

I  may  as  well  remark  here  as  anywhere,  that  the  features 
and  shape  of  head  of  General  Jackson,  which  ten  thousand 
sign-boards  have  made  familiar  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  are  common  in  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee.  la 


48     *  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1765. 

the  course  of  a  two  months'  tour  in  those  States  among  the 
people  of  Scotch-Irish  descent,  I  saw  more  than  twenty  well- 
marked  specimens  of  the  long,  slender,  Jacksonian  head,  with 
the  bushy,  bristling  hair,  and  the  well-known  features.  There 
is  a  member  of  the  North  Carolina  Legislature,  and  a  judge  in 
Tennessee,  so  strongly  resembling  General  Jackson,  that  it 
could  scarcely  fail  to  be  remarked  in  any  company  where  they 
were,  if  the  name  of  Jackson  should  be  mentioned.  The  ven 
erable  Dr.  Felix  Kobertson,  of  Nashville,  the  first  man  born 
in  that  part  of  the  Cumberland  valley,  who  is  still  living  to 
wonder  at  what  two  generations  of  men  have  wrought  in  that 
garden  of  the  South-west,  has  often  been  accosted  in  the 
street  as  General  Jackson,  though  he  is  not  so  much  like  the 
General  as  many  other  gentlemen  whom  I  have  seen.  In 
Carrickfergus,  there  are  probably  many  Jacksons  walking 
about  the  streets  unrecognized ;  the  type  being  evidently  one 
from  which  nature  has  been  in  the  habit  of  taking  impres 
sions  for  many  generations.  I  think  it  probable,  for  the  same 
reason,  that  Andrew  Jackson  the  elder  strongly  resembled  his 
son  in  form  and  feature.  The  General's  mother,  moreover, 
according  to  tradition,  was  a  "  stout  woman,"  and  among 
the  numerous  descendants  of  her  sisters  there  is  no  likeness 
to  General  Jackson  to  be  observed. 

The  party  of  emigrants  from  Carrickfergus  landed  at 
Charleston,  and  proceeded,  without  delay,  to  the  Waxhaw 
settlement,  a  hundred  and  sixty  miles  to  the  north-west  of 
Charleston,  where  many  of  their  kindred  and  countrymen 
were  already  established.  This  settlement  was,  or  had  been, 
the  seat  of  the  Waxhaw  tribe  of  Indians.  It  is  the  region 
watered  by  the  Catawba  river,  since  pleasantly  famous  for  its 
grapes.  A  branch  of  the  Catawba,  called  the  Waxhaw  Creek, 
a  small  and  not  ornamental  stream,  much  choked  with  logs 
and  overgrowth  to  this  day,  runs  through  it,  fertilizing  a  con 
siderable  extent  of  bottom  land.  It  is  a  pleasant  enough  un 
dulating  region,  an  oasis  of  fertility  in  a  waste  of  pine  woods  ; 
much  "  worn"  now  by  incessant  cotton-raising,  but  showing 
still  some  fine  and  profitable  plantations.  The  word  Wax- 


176'5.J  THE     EMIGRANTS.  49 

haw,  be  it  observed,  has  no  geographical  or  political  meaning. 
The  settlement  so  called  was  partly  in  North  Carolina  and 
partly  in  South  Carolina.  Many  of  the  settlers,  probably, 
scarcely  knew  in  which  of  the  two  provinces  they  lived,  nor 
cared  to  know.  At  this  day,  the  name  Waxhaw  has  van 
ished  from  the  maps  and  gazetteers,  but  in  the  country  round 
about  the  old  settlement,  the  lands  along  the  creek  are  still 
called  "  the  Waxhaws." 

Another  proof  of  the  poverty  of  Andrew  Jackson  is  this  : 
the  Crawfords,  who  came  with  him  from  Ireland,  bought 
lands  near  the  center  of  the  settlement,  on  the  Waxhaw 
Creek  itself,  lands  which  still  attest  the  wisdom  of  their 
choice  ;  but  Jackson  settled  seven  miles  away,  on  new  land, 
on  the  banks  of  Twelve  Mile  Creek,  another  branch  of  the 
Catawba.  The  place  is  now  known  as  "Pleasant  Grove 
Camp  Ground,"  and  the  particular  land  once  occupied  by  the 
father  of  General  Jackson  is  still  pointed  out  by  the  old  peo 
ple  of  the  neighborhood.  How  large  the  tract  was,  I  have 
not  been  able  to  ascertain  ;  as,  since  that  day,  there  have 
been  so  many  changes  in  the  counties  of  that  part  of  North 
Carolina,  that  a  search  for  an  old  land-title  is  attended  with 
peculiar  difficulty.  The  best  information  now  attainable 
confirms  the  tradition  which  prevails  in  the  Waxhaw  coun 
try,  that  Andrew  Jackson,  the  elder,  never  owned  in  America 
one  acre  of  land.  General  S.  H.  Walkup,  of  Union  county, 
a  distinguished  member  of  the  Senate  of  North  Carolina,  a 
lawyer  in  the  region  where  he  has  lived  from  his  birth,  has 
made  this  matter  a  subject  of  special  and  laborious  investiga 
tion.  "  I  have  examined/'  he  writes  to  me,  "  the  offices  of 
the  Kegister  of  Deeds  at  Wadesborough  in  Anson  county,  and 
Charlotte  in  Mecklenburg  county,  North  Carolina,  to  find 
out  whether  General  Jackson's  father  ever  owned  any  land, 
and  I  have  also  examined  the  old  papers  of  the  tract  on  which 
he  once  lived.  But  I  can  not  find  that  he  ever  owned  any 
land.  No  evidence  of  any  title  in  him  can  be  found.  My 
own  opinion  is,  that  he  never  did  own  any  land,  and  it  is 
well  known  that  he  was  extremely  poor ;  and  therefore  it 


50  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1767. 

was  that  after  his  death  his  widow  removed  to  Waxhaw 
Creek  among  her  relatives."  On  Twelve  Mile  Creek,  how 
ever,  Andrew  Jackson  planted  himself,  with  his  family,  and 
beo-an  to  hew  out  of  the  wilderness  a  farm  and  a  home.  The 

O 

land  is  in  what  is  now  called  Union  county,  North  Carolina, 
a  few  miles  from  Monroe,  the  county  seat.  The  county  was 
named  Union,  a  few  years  ago,  in  honor  of  the  Union's  in 
domitable  defender,  and  in  rebuke  of  neighboring  nullifiers. 
It  was  proposed  to  call  the  county  Jackson,  but  Union  was 
thought  a  worthier  compliment  ;  particularly  as  the  patriotic 
little  county  juts  into  South  Carolina. 

For  two  years  Andrew  Jackson  and  his  family  toiled  in 
the  Carolina  woods.  He  had  built  his  log-house,  cleared 
some  fields,  and  raised  a  crop.  Then,  the  father  of  the  fam 
ily,  his  work  all  incomplete,  sickened  and  died  :  his  two  boys 
being  still  very  young,  and  his  wife  far  advanced  in  preg 
nancy.  This  was  early  in  the  spring  of  1767. 

In  a  rude  farm-wagon  the  corpse,  accompanied,  as  it 
seems,  in  the  same  vehicle  by  all  the  little  family,  was  con 
veyed  to  tne  old  Waxhaw  church-yard,  and  interred.  No 
stone  marks  the  spot  beneath  which  the  bones  have  mold- 
ered  ;  but  tradition  points  it  out.  In  that  ancient  place  of 
burial,  families  sleep  together,  and  the  place  where  Andrew 
Jackson  lies  is  known  by  the  grave-stones  which  record  the 
names  of  his  wife's  relations,  the  Crawfords,  the  McKemeys 
and  others. 

A  strange  and  lonely  place  is  that  old  grave-yard  to  this 
day.  A  little  church  (the  third  that  has  stood  near  that 
spot)  having  nothing  whatever  of  the  ecclesiastical  in  its  ap 
pearance,  resembling  rather  a  neat  farm-house,  stands,  not 
in  the  church-yard,  but  a  short  distance  from  it.  Huge  trees, 
with  smaller  pines  among  them,  rise  singly  and  in  clumps,  as 
they  were  originally  left  by  those  who  first  subdued  the  wil 
derness  there.  Great  roots  of  trees  roughen  the  red  clay 
roads.  The  church  is  not  now  used,  because  of  some  schism 
respecting  psalmody  and  close  communion  ;  and  the  interior, 
unpainted,  unceiled,  and  uncushioned,  with  straight-backed 


1767.]  THE     EMIGRANTS.  51 

pews,  and  rough  Sunday-school  benches,  looks  grimly  wooden 
and  desolate  as  the  traveler  removes  the  chip  that  keeps  the 
door  from  blowing  open,  and  peeps  in.  Old  as  the  settle 
ment  is,  the  country  is  but  thinly  inhabited,  and  the  few 
houses  near  look  like  those  of  a  just-peopled  country  in  the 
northern  States.  Miles  and  miles  and  miles,  you  may  ride 
in  the  pine  woods  and  "  old  fields"  of  that  country,  without 
meeting  a  vehicle  or  seeing  a  living  creature.  So  that  when 
the  stranger  stands  in  that  church-yard  among  the  old  graves, 
though  there  is  a  house  or  two  not  far  off,  but  not  in  sight, 
he  has  the  feeling  of  one  who  comes  upon  the  ancient  burial- 
place  of  a  race  extinct.  Kude  old  stones  are  there  that  were 
placed  over  graves  when  as  yet  a  stone-cutter  was  not  in  the 
province  ;  stones  upon  which  coats-of-arms  were  once  en 
graved,  still  partly  decipherable  ;  stones  which  are  modern 
compared  with  these,  yet  record  the  exploits  of  revolutionary 
soldiers  ;  stones  so  old  that  every  trace  of  inscription  is  lost, 
and  stones  as  new  as  the  new  year.  The  inscriptions  on  the 
grave-stones  are  unusually  simple  and  direct,  and  free  from 
sniveling  and  cant.  A  large  number  of  them  end  with 
Pope's  line  (incorrectly  quoted)  which  declares  an  honest 
man  to  be  the  noblest  work  of  God.  One  of  the  inscriptions, 
the  longest  of  them  all,  I  copied,  because  it  seemed  a  good 
illustration  of  the  character  of  this  virtuous,  but  consciously- 
virtuous  race.  The  history  thus  bluntly  recorded  was  that 
of  many  who  lie  in  old  Waxhaw  church-yard,  and  the  charac 
ter  portrayed  is  Jacksonian  : 

"  Here  lies  the  body  of  Mr.  William  Blair,  who  departed  this  life  in  the 
64th  year  of  his  age,  on  the  2d  of  July,  A.  D.  1821,  at  9  P.  M.  He  was 
born  in  the  county  of  Antrim,  Ireland,  on  the  24th  of  March,  1759.  When 
about  thirteen  years  old,  he  came  with  his  father  to  this  country,  where  he 
resided  till  his  death. 

"  Immediately  on  his  left  are  deposited  the  earthly  remains  of  his  only 
wife,  Sarah,  whose  death  preceded  his  but  a  few  years. 

"  He  was  a  revolutionary  patriot,  and  in  the  humble  station  of  private 
soldier  and  wagon-master,  he  contributed  more  to  the  establishment  of 
American  independence  than  many  whose  names  are  proudly  emblazoned 
on  the  page  of  history. 


52  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1767. 

"With  his  father's  wagon  he  assisted  in  transporting  the  baggage  of 
the  American  army  for  several  months.  He  was  in  the  battles  of  the 
Hanging  Rock,  the  Eutaw,  Ratliff's  Bridge,  and  the  Fish  Dam  Ford  on 
Broad  River.  In  one  of  these  battles  (it  is  not  recollected  which)  he  re 
ceived  a  slight  wound,  but  so  far  was  he  from  regarding  it,  either  then  or 
afterwards,  that  when  it  was  intimated  to  him  that  he  might  avail  himself 
of  the  bounty  of  bis  country,  and  draw  a  pension  (as  many  of  his  camp 
associates  had  done)  lie  declared,  that  if  the  small  competence  he  then  pos 
sessed  failed  him,  he  was  able  and  willing  to  work  for  his  living,  and,  if  it 
became  necessary,  to  fight  for  his  country  without  a  penny  of  pay. 

"  In  the  language  of  Pope,  '  The  noblest  work  of  God  is  an  honest 
man.' 

"  No  further  seek  his  merits  to  disclose, 

Or  draw  his  frailties  from  their  dread  abode. 
There  they  alike  in  trembling  hope  repose, 
The  bosom  of  his  father  and  his  God." 


The  bereaved  family  of  the  Jacksons  never  returned  to 
their  home  on  the  banks  of  Twelve  Mile  Creek,  but  went 
from  the  church-yard  to  the  house,  not  far  off,  of  one  of  Mrs. 
Jackson's  brothers-in-law,  George  McKemey  by  name,  whose 
remains  now  repose  in  the  same  old  burying-ground.  A  few 
nights  after,  Mrs.  Jackson  was  seized  with  the  pains  of  labor. 
There  was  a  swift  sending  of  messengers  to  the  neighbors, 
and  a  hurrying  across  the  fields  of  friendly  women  ;  and  be 
fore  the  sun  rose,  a  son  was  born,  the  son  whose  career  and 
fortunes  we  have  undertaken  to  relate.  It  was  in  a  small 
log  house,  in  the  province  of  North  Carolina,  less  than  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  boundary  line  between  North  and 
South  Carolina,  that  the  birth  took  place. 

Andrew  Jackson,  then,  was  born  in  Union  county,  North 
Carolina,  on  the  15th  of  March,  1767. 

General  Jackson  always  supposed  himself  to  be  a  native 
of  South  Carolina.  "  Fellow-citizens  of  my  native  State  \" 
he  exclaims,  at  the  close  of  his  proclamation  to  the  nullifiers 
of  South  Carolina  ;  but  it  is  as  certain  as  any  fact  of  the 
kind  can  be  that  he  was  mistaken.  The  point  is  one  of  small 
importance,  but  as  it  may  be  questioned,  and  as  the  people  of 
the  Carolinas  have  shown  much  interest  in  it,  I  will  give  the 


1767.J  THE     EMIGRANTS.  53 

briefest  possible  summary  of  the  evidence*  which  fixes  the 
birth  of  General  Jackson  in  North  Carolina.  The  evidence 
was  collected  and  drawn  up  in  convincing  array  by  G-eneral 
S.  E.  Walkup,  a  most  worthy  gentleman.  Born  and  brought 
up  in  the  neighborhood,  General  Walkup  was  aided  in  his 
inquiries  by  a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  country  and  of  the 
unimpeachable  character  of  his  witnesses.  I  went  afterward 
myself  over  the  same  ground,  and  heard  the  same  story  from 
many  of  the  same  persons  ;  but  the  whole  credit  of  setting 
this  matter  right  belongs  to  the  honorable  and  patriotic  gen 
tleman  just  named. 

First,  let  us  establish  the  fact  that  the  birth  took  place 
at  the  house  of  George  McKemey.f 

Benjamin  Massey,  an  old  resident  of  the  vicinity  (as  are, 
or  were,  the  other  testifiers),  gives  his  recollections  of  what 
he  heard  Mrs.  Lathen,  who  was  present  at  the  birth,  say  on 
the  subject.  Mrs.  Lathen  said 

"  That  she  was  about  seven  years  older  than  Andrew  Jackson ;  that 
when  the  father  of  Andrew  Jackson  died,  Mrs.  Jackson  left  home  and 
came  to  her  brother-in-law's,  Mr.  McCamie's,  previous  to  the  birth  of 
Andrew ;  after  living  at  Mr.  McCamie's  awhile,  Andrew  was  born,  and 
she  was  present  at  his  birth ;  as  soon  as  Mrs.  Jackson  was  restored  to 
health  and  strength  she  came  to  Mr.  James  Crawford's,  in  South  Carolina, 
and  there  remained." 

John  Games  says  : — 

"  Mrs.  Leslie,  the  aunt  of  General  Jackson,  has  often  told  me  that 
G-eneral  Jackson  was  born  at  George  McCamie's,  in  North  Carolina,  and 
that  his  mother,  soon  after  his  birth,  moved  over  to  James  Crawford's,  in 
South  Carolina ;  and  I  think  she  told  me  she  was  present  at  his  birth ; 
but  at  any  rate,  she  knew  well  he  was  born  at  McCamie's." 

James  Faulkner,  second  cousin  of  General  Jackson,  states 
"  That  old  Mr.  Jackson  died  before  the  birth  of  his  son,  General  Jack- 

*  Published,  in  part,  in  the  North  Carolina  Argus  of  September  23d,  1858, 
and  the  rest  deposited  in  the  Historical  Society  of  North  Carolina. 

f  This  name  is  spelt  in  various  ways  in  the  depositions.  I  follow  the  spell 
ing  of  his  tombstone  in  Waxhaw  church- yard. 


54  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1767. 

son,  and  that  his  widow,  Mrs.  Jackson,  was  quite  poor,  and  moved  from 
her  residence  on  Twelve  Mile  Creek,  North  Carolina,  to  live  with  her 
relations  on  Waxhaw  Creek,  and  while  on  her  way  there,  she  stopped 
with  her  sister,  Mrs.  McCamie,  in  North  Carolina,  and  was  there  deliv 
ered  of  Andrew,  afterward  President  of  the  United  States ;  that  he  learned 
this  from  various  old  persons,  and  particularly  heard  his  aunt,  Sarah  Lathen, 
often  speak  of  it  and  assert  that  she  was  present  at  his,  Jackson's,  birth ; 
that  she  said  her  mother,  Mrs.  Leslie,  was  sent  for  on  that  occasion,  and 
took  her,  Mrs.  Lathen,  then  a  small  girl  about  seven  years  of  age,  with 
her,  and  that  she  recollected  well  of  going  the  near  way  through  the  fields 
to  get  there;  and  that  afterward,  when  Mrs.  Jackson  became  able  to 
travel,  she  continued  her  trip  to  Mrs.  Crawford's,  and  took  her  son  Andrew 
with  her,  and  there  remained." 

John  Lathen,  second  cousin  of  General  Jackson,  says  : — 

"  The  following  is  about  what  I  have  heard  my  mother,  Sarah  Lathen, 
say  in  frequent  conversation  about  the  birth-place  of  Andrew  Jackson, 
President  of  the  United  States.  She  has  often  remarked  that  Andrew 
Jackson  was  born  at  the  house  of  George  McCamie,  and  that  she,  Mrs. 
Lathen,  was  present  at  his  birth.  She  stated  that  the  father  of  Andrew 
Jackson,  viz.,  Andrew  Jackson,  Sr.,  lived  and  died  on  Twelve  Mile  Creek 
in  Mecklenburg  county,  North  Carolina,  and  that  soon  after  his  death, 
Mrs.  Jackson  left  Twelve  Mile  Creek,  North  Carolina,  to  go  to  live  with 
Mr.  Crawford,  in  Lancaster  district,  South  Carolina.  That  on  her  way,  she 
called  at  the  house  of  George  McCamie,  who  had  married  a  sister  of  hers, 
Mrs.  Jackson,  and  while  at  McCamie's,  she  was  taken  sick,  and  sent  for 
Mrs.  Sarah  Leslie,  her  sister,  and  the  mother  of  Mrs.  Sarah  Lathen,  who 
was  a  midwife,  and  who  lived  near  McCamie's.  That  she,  Mrs.  Lathen, 
accompanied  her  mother,  Mrs.  Sarah  Leslie,  to  George  McCamie's;  that  she 
was  a  young  girl,  and  recollects  going  with  her  mother ;  they  walked 
through  the  fields  in  the  night,  and  that  she  was  present  when  Andrew 
Jackson  was  born.  That  as  soon  as  Mrs.  Jackson  got  able  to  travel  after 
the  birth  of  Andrew  she  went  on  to  Mr.  Crawford's,  where  she  afterward 
lived." 

Thomas  Faulkner,  second  cousin  of  General  Jackson, 
says  : — 

"  My  recollection  of  what  Mrs.  Sarah  Lathen  said  of  the  birth-place  of 
Andrew  Jackson,  President  of  the  United  States,  was  about  this :  I  have 
often  heard  her  say  that  Mrs.  Betty  Jackson,  the  mother  of  Andrew 
Jackson,  '  was  taken  sick  at  the  house  of  George  McCamie,  and  sent  for 
Mrs  Sarah  Leslie  at  the  time  when  she  was  delivered  of  Andrew  Jackson, 


1767.]  THEE  MIGRANTS.  55 

and  that  she,  Mrs.  Leslie,  took  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Lathen,  with  her  on 
the  night  of  Jackson's  birth ;  and  that  they  walked  through  the  fields,  the 
near  way,  from  Mrs.  Leslie's  to  G-eorge  McCamieV  I  have  often  heard 
my  grandmother,  Sarah  Leslie,  say  '  that  she  was  sent  for  on  the  night  of 
the  birth  of  Andrew  Jackson  by  her  sister,  Mrs.  Betty  Jackson,  who  was 
taken  sick  at  the  house  of  her  brother-in-law,  George  McCamie,  and  that 
she  took  her  daughter,  Sarah  Lathen,  then  a  small  girl,  with  her ;  that 
they  walked  the  near  way,  through  the  fields,  to  McCamie's,  and  that 
she  was  present  when  Andrew  Jackson  was  born  at  the  house  of  said 
George  McCamie.'  These  women  were  both  of  sound  minds  and  excel 
lent  memories  and  characters  up  to  the  time  of  their  deaths.  Mrs.  Leslie 
died  about  fifty  years  ago,  and  Mrs.  Lathen  died  thirty-five  years  ago.  I 
am  now  seventy  years  of  age,  and  reside  now,  where  I  have  ever  since 
my  birth,  in  Lancaster  district,  South  Carolina,  near  Craigsville  post  office, 
and  about  two  miles  from  the  old  Waxhaw  church." 

To  the  same  effect  testify  Samuel  McWhorter,  Jane 
Wilson  and  others. 

James  D.  Craig,  formerly  a  resident  of  Waxhaw,  now  of 
the  State  of  Mississippi,  states  that  he  remembers  hearing 
old  James  Faulkner  say  that  once  while  sleeping  with  Andrew 
Jackson  at  the  McKemey  house,  Andrew  told  him  that  he 
was  born  in  that  house.  Mr.  Craig  further  says  that  he  has 
heard  Mrs.  Cousar,  a  very  aged  lady,  long  a  near  neighbor  of 
McKemey,  say  that  she  remembered  perfectly  the  night  of 
Andrew  Jackson's  birth,  as  she  was  sent  for  to  assist,  and 
reached  the  McKemey  house  before  the  infant  was  dressed. 
Mr.  Craig  has  also  heard  Charles  Findly,  deceased,  say  that 
he  "  assisted  in  hauling"  the  corpse  of  Andrew  Jackson  from 
his  house  on  Twelve  Mile  Creek  to  the  Waxhaw  church 
yard,  and  in  interring  it  there  ;  that  he  brought  Mrs.  Jack 
son  and  her  boys  with  the  corpse,  and,  after  the  funeral, 
conveyed  them  to  the  residence  of  George  McKemey,  where, 
soon  after,  Andrew  was  born. 

This  testimony  leaves  no  reasonable  doubt  that  the  birth 
took  place  at  the  house  of  McKemey.  Nor  is  there  the  least 
difficulty  in  finding  the  precise  spot  where  that  house  stood. 
The  spot  is  as  well  known  to  the  people  of  the  neighborhood 
as  the  City  Hall  is  to  the  inhabitants  of  New  York.  The 


56  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1767. 

testimony  of  the  late  Thomas  Cure  ton,  Esq.,  long  the  owner 
of  the  place,  and  father  of  its  present  proprietor,  will  suffice 
to  satisfy  the  reader  on  this  point  : — 

"  I,  Thomas  Cureton,  senior,  being  about  seventy-five  years  of  age,  do 
hereby  certify  that  my  father,  James  Cureton,  came  to  this  Waxhaw  Set 
tlement  from  Roanoke  River,  in  North  Carolina,  about  seventy-three  years 
ago,  as  I  am  informed  and  believe,  when  I  was  about  one  year  old ;  and 
my  brother,  Jeremiah  Cureton,  who  was  about  twenty  years  older  than 
myself,  came  with  him.  My  brother,  Jeremiah  Cureton,  bought  the 
George  McCamie  place  some  time  after  he  came  to  this  county,  in  about 
1796,  and  settled  down  on  the  same  place  and  in  the  same  house  where 
George  McCamie  lived.  He  remained  there  a  few  years,  and  until  he 
bought  the  place  where  William  J.  Cureton  now  lives.  I  know  the  George 
McCamie  place  well.  It  lies  in  North  Carolina,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
east  of  the  public  road  leading  from  Lancaster  Court  House,  South  Caro 
lina,  to  Charlotte,  North  Carolina,  and  to  the  right  of  said  road  as  you 
travel  north ;  and  lies  a  little  east  of  south  from  Cureton's  Pond  on  said 
public  road,  and  a  little  over  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  said  pond.  My 
brother,  Jeremiah  Cureton,  always  called  that  the  McCamie  house,  and  the 
McCamie  place.  My  brother,  Jeremiah  Cureton,  was  of  the  opinion,  from 
information  derived  from  old  Mrs.  Molly  Cousar,  the  mother  of  Richard 
Cousar,  that  Andrew  Jackson,  President  of  the  United  States,  was  born 
at  the  George  McCamie  place  as  above  described.  Mrs.  Cousar  was  a 
neighbor,  and  lived  then,  at  the  time  of  the  birth  of  General  Andrew  Jack 
son,  and  until  her  death,  in  South  Carolina,  about  one  mile  west  from  the 
George  McCamie  house,  and  was  a  very  old  woman  when  she  died,  which 
was  about  thirty-five  years  ago.  She  was  a  woman  of  undoubted  good 
moral  character,  and  her  veracity  was  unquestionable.  The  Leslie  houses 
lay  about  half  a  mile  in  a  southern  direction  from  the  McCamie  house,  and 
north  of  Waxhaw  Creek,  and  east  of  the  public  road.  I  have  lived  for  the 
last  seventy-two  or  three  years  within  three  or  four  miles  of  the  McCamie 
place." 

To  this  add  the  following  from  Thomas  J.  Cureton,  Esq., 
the  present  hospitable  proprietor  of  the  place  : — 

"  This  McCamie  house  lies  about  half  a  mile  south-east  of  where  I  now 
live,  and  is  in  Union  county,  North  Carolina,  formerly  called  Mecklen 
burg  county,  North  Carolina ;  and  is  a  little  over  a  quarter  of  a  mile  south 
east  of  what  is  called  Cureton's  Pond,  and  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  east 


1767.]  THE     EMIGRANTS.  57 

of  the  State  line,  and  the  public  road  leading  from  Lancaster  Court  House, 
South  Carolina,  to  Charlotte,  North  Carolina,  and  about  one  and  a  half 
miles  north  of  Waxhaw  Creek.  I  have  the  old  land  papers  for  said  tract, 
which  was  patented  to  John  McCane,  1761,  upon  a  survey  dated  8th  Sep 
tember,  1757;  conveyed  by  McCane  to  Repentance  Townsend,  10th  April, 
1761,  and  by  Townsend  to  George  McCamie,  3d  January,  1766 ;  and  by 
George  McCamie  to  Thomas  Crawford,  1792;  and  from  Crawford  and 
wife,  Elizabeth,  to  my  father,  23d  July,  1796 ;  and  by  my  father  to  my 
self,  and  which  I  still  own.  My  father  came  from  Virginia  with  my  grand 
father.  James  Cureton,  to  Roanoke,  North  Carolina,  and  from  there  to  Wax- 
haws,  South  Carolina,  and  purchased  the  McCamie  place,  where  he  lived 
a  few  years,  and  then  removed  to  the  place  where  I  now  reside  in  Lan 
caster  district,  South  Carolina,  where  he  remained  until  his  death  in  1847  ; 
being  then  eighty-four  years  of  age." 

And  so  we  dismiss  this  unimportant  but  not  wholly  unin 
teresting  matter. 

In  a  large  field,  near  the  edge  of  a  wide,  shallow  ravine, 
on  the  plantation  of  Mr.  W.  J.  Cureton,  there  is  to  be  seen  a 
great  clump,  or  natural  summer-house,  of  Catawba  grape 
vines.  Some  remains  of  old  fruit  trees  near  by,  and  a  spring 
a  little  way  down  the  ravine,  indicate  that  a  human  habita 
tion  once  stood  near  this  spot.  It  is  a  still  and  solitary  place, 
away  from  the  road,  in  a  red,  level  region,  where  the  young 
pines  are  in  haste  to  cover  the  well-worn  cotton  fields,  and 
man  seems  half  inclined  to  let  them  do  it,  and  move  to  Texas. 
Upon  looking  under  the  masses  of  grape  vine,  a  heap  of 
large  stones  showing  traces  of  fire  is  discovered.  These  stones 
once  formed  the  chimney  and  fire-place  of  the  log-house  wherein 
George  McKemey  lived  and  Andrew  Jackson  was  born.  On 
that  old  yellow  hearth-stone,  Mrs.  Jackson  lulled  her  infant 
to  sleep,  and  brooded  over  her  sad  bereavement,  and  thought 
anxiously  respecting  the  future  of  her  fatherless  boys.  Sacred 
spot !  not  so  much  because  there  a  hero  was  born,  as  be 
cause  there  a  noble  mother  suffered,  sorrowed  and  accepted 
her  new  lot,  and  bravely  bent  herself  to  her  more  than 
doubled  weight  of  care  and  toil. 

Mrs.  Jackson  remained  at  this  house  three  weeks.  Then, 
leaving  her  eldest  son  behind  to  aid  her  brother-in-law  on  his 


58  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1777. 

farm,  she  removed,  with  her  second  son  and  the  new-born 
infant,  to  the  residence  of  another  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Craw 
ford,  with  whom  she  had  crossed  the  ocean,  and  who  then 
lived  two  miles  distant.  Mrs.  Crawford  was  an  invalid,  and 
Mrs.  Jackson  was  permanently  established  in  the  family  as 
housekeeper  and  poor  relation. 


CHAPTER    IV, 

MISCHIEVOUS     ANDY. 

To  the  old  people  in  the  Carolinas  who  are  descended  from 
the  sisters  of  Mrs.  Jackson,  Andrew  Jackson  is  not  so  much 
the  famous  President  arid  the  victorious  General,  as  he  is  little 
Andy,  the  mischief-loving  son  of  good  aunt  Betty.  Andy 
did  this  ;  and  Andy  went  there  ;  when  Andy  was  at  New 
Orleans,  and  when  A ndy  was  President — they  say  in  familiar 
talk  about  him  by  the  huge  fire-places  of  their  old  farm-houses. 
He  is  well  remembered  in  that  part  of  the  country,  as  there 
are  twenty  people  living  there  who  were  in  the  habit  for 
many  years  of  hearing  their  parents  tell  stories  of  him  ;  sim 
ple,  honest,  hospitable  people,  whom  to  hear  is  to  believe. 
So  changeless  is  the  South,  so  secluded  do  the  farmers  there 
live  from  the  world  of  men  and  books,  that  these  kind  people 
are  evidently  just  what  their  grandfathers  were  before  the 
Revolution,  and  their  great-grandfathers  in  Carrickfergus. 

In  the  family  of  his  uncle  Crawford,  Andy  spent  the  first 
ten  or  twelve  years  of  his  life.  Mr.  Crawford  was  a  man  of 
considerable  substance  for  a  new  country,  and  his  family  was 
large.  He  lived  in  South  Carolina,  just  over  the  boundary 
line,  near  the  Waxhaw  Creek,  and  six  miles  from  the  Ca- 
tawba  River.  The  land  there  lies  well  for  farming  ;  level, 
but  not  flat ;  undulating,  but  without  hills  of  inconvenient 
height.  The  soil  is  a  stiff,  red  clay,  the  stiffest  of  the  stiff, 


1777.]  MISCHIEVOUS     ANDY.  59 

and  the  reddest  of  the  red  ;  the  kind  of  soil  which  bears  hard 
usage,  and  makes  the  very  worst  winter  roads  anywhere  to 
be  found  on  this  planet.  Except  where  there  is  an  interval 
of  fertile  soil,  the  country  round  about  is  a  boundless  contin 
uity  of  pine  woods,  wherein,  if  you  lose  your  way,  you  may 
wait  long  for  a  chance  to  inquire.  To  this  day,  wild  turkeys 
and  deer  are  shot  in  those  woods,  and  the  farmers  in  Wax- 
haw  take  their  cotton  to  market  in  immense  wagons  of  an 
tique  pattern,  a  journey  of  half  a  week,  and  camp  out  every 
night.  As  evening  closes  in,  the  passing  traveler  sees  the 
mules,  the  negro  driver,  the  huge  covered  wagon,  the  farmer, 
and  sometimes  his  wife  with  an  infant,  grouped  in  the  most 
strikingly  picturesque  manner,  in  an  opening  of  the  forest, 
around  a  blazing  fire  of  pine  knots,  that  light  up  the  scene 
like  an  illumination.  Just  so,  doubtless,  did  the  farmers  in 
Andy's  day  transport  their  produce  ;  and,  many  a  time,  I 
doubt  not,  he  slept  by  the  camp-fire  ;  for  the  Carolina  boys 
like  nothing  better  than  to  go  to  market  with  their  fathers, 
and  share  in  the  glorious  adventure  of  sleeping  out-of-doors. 
in  such  a  country  as  this,  with  horses  to  ride,  and  cows  to 
hunt,  and  journeys  to  make,  and  plenty  of  boys,  black  and 
white,  to  play  with,  our  little  friend  Andy  spent  his  early 
years. 

There  is  an  aged  slave  woman  known  in  the  neighborhood 
as  old  Aunt  Phyllis,  living  still  on  the  Crawford  farm,  who 
lived  there  when  Mrs.  Jackson,  ninety-two  years  ago,  brought 
her  infant  to  her  sister's  house.  Aunt  Phyllis  appears  to  re 
member  her  coming  vividly.  I  saw  the  old  lady  in  her  cabin, 
one  of  a  small  street  of  negro-cabins,  pottering  over  the  fire, 
and  keeping  an  eye  on  half  a  dozen  small  images  of  God  cut 
in  ebony,  while  their  parents  were  abroad  in  the  fields.  She 
is  bent  half  double,  but  is  otherwise  remarkably  well  pre 
served.  At  the  mention  of  the  name  of  Jackson,  every 
wrinkle  in  her  old  face  laughed  ;  but  her  recollections  of  the 
boy  and  his  mother  are  scanty  in  the  extreme.  She  remem 
bers  Mrs.  Jackson  as  a  stout  woman  who  was  always  knitting 
or  spinning  ;  "  a  very  good  woman,  and  very  much  respected/' 


60  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1777. 

Of  the  boy  she  has  one  distinct  reminiscence,  which  the  polite 
reader  must  excuse  me  for  repeating.  As  every  eye  sees  what 
it  is  capable  of  seeing,  so  every  memory  retains  what  belongs 
to  it  to  retain  ;  and  the  memory  of  Aunt  Phyllis  is  a  mem 
ory  in  point.  What  she  recollects  of  Andy  is,  that  she  as 
sisted  to  cure  him  of  a  disease  which  she  called  the  "  big 
itch." 

"  There  is  two  itches,"  she  explained,  "  the  big  itch  and 
the  little  itch  ;  the  little  itch  aint  nothing  to  the  big  itch  ; 
the  big  itch  breaks  out  all  over  you,  and  do  frighten  a  body 
powerful." 

Her  general  recollection  of  the  boy  is,  that  he  was  the 
most  mischievous  of  all  the  youngsters  thereabouts  ;  always 
up  to  some  prank  and  getting  into  trouble.  Beyond  this, 
nothing  could  be  obtained  from  Aunt  Phyllis,  except  a  gentle 
hint  to  her  visitors  tending  to  remind  them  that  tobacco  is 
the  solace  of  old  age. 

In  due  time  the  boy  was  sent  to  an  "  old-field  school,"  an 
institution  not  much  unlike  the  road-side  schools  in  Ireland, 
of  which  we  read.  The  northern  reader  is,  perhaps,  not 
aware  that  an  "  old  field"  is  not  a  field  at  all,  but  a  pine 
forest.  When  crop  after  crop  of  cotton,  without  rotation, 
has  exhausted  the  soil,  the  fences  are  taken  away,  the  land 
lies  waste,  the  young  pines  at  once  spring  up,  and  soon  cover 
the  whole  field  with  a  thick  growth  of  wood.  In  one  of  these 
old  fields,  the  rudest  possible  shanty  of  a  log-house  is  erected, 
with  a  fire-place  that  extends  from  side  to  side,  and  occupies 
a  third  of  the  interior.  In  winter,  the  interstices  of  the  log 
walls  are  filled  up  with  clay,  which  the  restless  fingers  of  the 
boys  make  haste  to  remove  in  time  to  admit  the  first  warm 
airs  of  spring.*  An  itinerant  schoolmaster  presents  himself 

*  The  author  of  "  Georgia  Scenes"  describes  an  edifice  of  this  kind :  "  It  was 
a  simple  log-pen,  about  twenty  feet  square,  with  a  doorway  cut  out  of  the  logs, 
to  which  was  fitted  a  rude  door,  made  of  clapboards,  and  swung  on  wooden 
hinges.  The  roof  was  covered  with  clapboards  also,  and  retained  in  their  places 
by  heavy  logs  placed  on  them.  The  chimney  was  built  of  logs  diminishing  in 
size  from  the  ground  to  the  top,  and  overspread  inside  and  out  with  red  clay  and 


1777.]  MISCHIEVOUS     ANDY.  61 

in  a  neighborhood  ;  the  responsible  farmers  pledge  him  a  cer 
tain  number  of  pupils  ;  and  an  old-field  school  is  established 
for  the  season.  Such  schools,  called  by  the  same  name,  exist 
to  this  day  in  the  Carolinas,  differing  little  from  those  which 
Andrew  Jackson  attended  in  his  childhood.  Reading,  writ 
ing,  and  arithmetic  were  all  the  branches  taught  in  the  early 
day.  Among  a  crowd  of  urchins  seated  on  the  slab  benches 
of  a  school  like  this,  fancy  a  tall,  slender  boy,  with  blue 
bright  eyes,  a  freckled  face,  an  abundance  of  long  sandy  hair, 
and  clad  in  coarse  copperas-colored  cloth,  with  bare  feet 
dangling  and  kicking — and  you  have  in  your  mind's  eye  a 
picture  of  Andy  as  he  appeared  in  his  old-field  school  days 
in  the  Waxhaw  settlement. 

But  Mrs.  Jackson,  it  is  said,  had  more  ambitious  views 
for  her  youngest  son.  She  aimed  to  give  him  a  liberal  edu 
cation,  in  the  hope  that  he  would  one  day  become  a  clergy 
man  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  It  is  possible  that  her  con 
dition  was  not  one  of  absolute  dependence.  The  farm  of  her 
deceased  husband  may  have  been  held,  though  not  owned  by 
her ;  and  either  let  to  a  tenant,  or  worked  on  shares,  may 
have  yielded  her  a  small  income.  The  tradition  of  the  neigh 
borhood,  however,  says  nothing  of  this,  but  represents  her  as 
a  poor,  dependent  woman.  It  is  possible,  too,  that  her  rela 
tions  in  Ireland  may  have  contributed  something  to  her  sup 
port.  General  Jackson  had  a  distinct  recollection  of  her  re 
ceiving  presents  of  linen  from  the  old  country,  and,  particu 
larly,  one  parcel,  the  letter  accompanying  which  was  lost,  to 
the  sore  grief  of  the  good  lady ;  for,  in  those  days,  a  letter 
from  "  home"  was  a  treasure  beyond  price.  The  impression 
that  she  was  not  quite  destitute  of  resources  is  strengthened 

mortar.  The  classic  hut  occupied  a  lovely  spot,  overshadowed  by  majestic 
hickorys,  towering  poplars,  and  strong-armed  oaks.  *  *  *  A  large  three 
inch  plank  (if  it  deserve  that  name,  for  it  was  wrought  from  the  half  of  a  tree's 
trunk  entirely  with  the'  ax),  attached  to  the  logs  by  means  of  wooden  pins, 
served  the  whole  school  for  a  writing-desk.  At  a  conveniant  distance  below  it, 
and  on  a  line  with  it,  stretched  a  smooth  log,  resting  upon  the  logs  of  the  house, 
which  answered  for  the  writers'  seat." 
vol..  I. — 5 


62  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1777. 

by  the  fact,  that  Andrew,  at  an  early  age,  attended  some  of 
the  better  schools  of  the  country — schools  kept  by  clergymen, 
in  which  the  languages  were  taught,  and  young  men  prepared 
for  college  and  for  the  ministry. 

The  first  school  of  this  kind  that  he  attended  was  an 
academy  in  the  Waxhaw  settlement,  of  which  one  Dr. 
Humphries  was  master.  The  site  of  the  large  log-house  in 
which  Dr.  Humphries  kept  his  school  is  still  pointed  out, 
but  no  traces  of  it  remain ;  nor  can  any  information  respect 
ing  the  school,  its  master,  or  its  pupils,  be  now  obtained. 
There  is  also  a  strong  tradition  that  young  Jackson  attended 
a  school  in  Charlotte,  N.  C.,  then  called  Queen's  College,  a 
school  of  renown  at  that  day.  The  inhabitants  of  the  pleas 
ant  town  of  Charlotte  all  believe  this.  Jackson  himself  once 
said  that  he  went  to  school  there.  When  a  delegation  went 
from  Charlotte  to  Washington  to  ask  Congress  to  establish  a 
mint  in  the  gold  region,  President  Jackson  was  told  by  one 
of  them  that  gold  had  been  found  in  the  very  hill  on  which 
Queen's  College  had  once  stood.  To  which  the  President 
replied,  "  Then  it  must  have  grown  since  I  went  to  school 
there,  for  there  was  no  gold  there  then ;"  a  remark  which  the 
geologists  of  Charlotte  still  facetiously  quote  when  the  ques 
tion  of  the  origin  of  gold  is  discussed  among  them.  I  was 
also  assured  that  young  Jackson  attended  the  famous  school 
of  Dr.  Waddell,  one  of  whose  pupils  was  John  C.  Calhoun, 
and  was  inclined  to  believe  the  story,  until  I  discovered  that 
Dr.  Waddell  did  not  open  his  academy  until  after  Jackson 
had  left  school  for  ever. 

In  proof  that  Jackson  had  once  been  a  pupil  of  Dr.  Wad 
dell,  an  anecdote  was  related  to  me  by  one  of  the  General's 
most  intimate  friends  and  fellow-soldiers.  General  Jackson, 
as  his  associates  remember,  had  certain  peculiarities  of  pro 
nunciation,  to  which  he  always  adhered.  For  example,  he 
would  pronounce  the  word  development,  as  though  it  were 
written,  devil-ope-ment,  with  a  strong  accent  upon  ope.  One 
day,  during  his  presidency,  he  so  pronounced  it,  when  in  con 
versation  with  a  foreign  minister,  who,  though  not  English, 


1777.]  MISCHIEVOUS     ANDY.  63 

had  been  educated  in  England,  and  plumed  himself  upon  his 
knowledge  and  nice  pronunciation  of  the  English  language. 
"  Devil-ope-ment,"  said  the  General,  with  emphasis.  The 
ambassador  lifted  his  eyebrows  slightly,  and,  in  the  course  of 
a  sentence  or  two,  took  occasion  to  pronounce  the  word  cor 
rectly.  The  President,  seeming  not  to  remark  his  excellency's 
benevolent  intention,  again  said  "  Devil-ope-ment ;"  where 
upon  the  fastidious  minister  ventured  once  more  to  give 
the  word  its  proper  accent.  No  notice  was  taken  of  the  im 
polite  correction. 

"  I  repeat  it,  Mr. ,"  continued  the  President ;  "  this 

measure  is  essential  to  the  devil-ope-ment  of  our  resources." 

"  Really,  sir/'  replied  the  ambassador,  "  I  consider  the 
development  of  your  country" — with  a  marked  accent 
upon  the  vel. 

Upon  this,  the  General  exclaimed,  "  Excuse  me,  Mr. 

.  You  may  call  it  de-veZ-opment,  if  you  please ;  but  / 

say  devil-ope-ment,  and  will  say  devil-ope-ment  as  long  as  I 
revere  the  memory  of  good  old  Dr.  Waddell !" 

The  inference  from  this  story,  that  Jackson  attended  Dr. 
Waddell's  school,  was  natural.  But  that  Dr.  WaddeU's 
school  did  not  exist  during  Jackson's  school-days,  we  have 
incontrovertible  evidence.*  Waddell,  however,  was  a  famous 
preacher  as  well  as  teacher,  and  the  youth  may  have  imbibed 
a  reverence  for  his  character  and  caught  his  pronunciation, 
without  having  been  under  his  instruction. 

There  are  yet  living  several  persons  whose  fathers  were 
schoolmates  of  Andrew  Jackson  ;  and  though  none  of  them 
can  say  positively  where  he  went  to  school,  nor  who  were  his 
teachers,  nor  what  he  learned,  yet  all  of  them  derived  from 
their  fathers  some  general  and  some  particular  impressions 
of  his  character  and  conduct  as  a  school-boy.  Such  incidents 
and  traits  as  have  thus  come  down  to  us,  will  not  be  regarded, 
I  trust,  as  too  trivial  for  brief  record. 

*  See  Memoir  of  Dr.  Waddell  in  Sprague's  Annala  of  the  American  Pulpit, 
Allen's  Biographical  Dictionary,  etc. 


64  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1777. 

Andy  was  a  wild,  frolicsome,  willful,  mischievous,  daring, 
reckless  boy  ;  generous  to  a  friend,  but  never  content  to  sub 
mit  to  a  stronger  enemy.  He  was  passionately  fond  of  those 
sports  which  are  mimic  battles  ;  above  all,  wrestling.  Being 
a  slender  boy,  more  active  than  strong,  he  was  often  thrown. 

"I  could  throw  him  three  times  out  of  four/'  an  old 
schoolmate  used  to  say ;  "  but  he  would  never  stay  throwed. 
He  was  dead  game,. even  then,  and  never  would  give  up." 

He  was  exceedingly  fond  of  running  foot-races,  of  leaping 
the  bar,  and  jumping  ;  and  in  such  sports  he  was  excelled  by 
no  one  of  his  years.  To  younger  boys,  who  never  questioned 
his  mastery,  he  was  a  generous  protector ;  there  was  nothing 
he  would  not  do  to  defend  them.  His  equals  and  superiors 
found  him  self-willed,  somewhat  overbearing,  easily  offended, 
very  irascible,  and,  upon  the  whole,  "  difficult  to  get  along 
with."  One  of  them  said,  many  years  after,  in  the  heat  of 
controversy,  that  of  all  the  boys  he  had  ever  known,  Andrew 
Jackson  was  the  only  bully  who  was  not  also  a  coward. 

But  the  boy,  it  appears,  had  a  special  cause  of  irritation 
in  a  disagreeable  disease,  name  unknown,  which  induces  a 
habit  of — not  to  put  too  fine  a  point  on  it — "  slobbering/' 
Woe  to  any  boy  who  presumed  to  jest  at  this  misfortune  ! 
Andy  was  upon  him  incontinently,  and  there  was  either  a 
fight  or  a  drubbing.  There  is  a  story,  too,  of  some  boys 
secretly  loading  a  gun  to  the  muzzle,  and  giving  it  to  young 
Jackson  to  fire  off,  that  they  might  have  the  pleasure  of  see 
ing  it  "  kick"  him  over.  They  had  that  pleasure.  Springing 
up  from  the  ground,  the  boy,  in  a  frenzy  .of  passion,  ex 
claimed  : 

"  By  a— d,  if  one  of  you  laughs,  I'll  kill  him  !" 

And  no  cue  dared  to  laugh.  He  was  a  swearing  lad  from 
an  early  age  ;  and  indeed  he  needed  to  begin  early,  in  order 
to  acquire  that  wonderful  mastery  of  the  art  to  which  he 
attained  in  after  life,  surpassing  all  known  men  in  the  fluency 
and  chain-shot  force  and  complication  of  his  oaths.  It  was 
a  swearing  age,  the  reader  will  remember.  Our  army  had 
not  long  been  home  from  Flanders.  The  expression,  "  By 


1777.]  MISCHIEVOUS    ANDY.  65 

G — d,"  was  almost  as  familiar  to  the  men  of  that  day  as 
mon  Dieu  now  is  to  Frenchmen,  or  mein  Gott  to  Germans. 
It  was  used  commonly  by  fox-hunting  clergymen,  there  is 
reason  to  believe.  So,  at  least,  we  may  infer  from  the  comedies 
and  novels  of  the  period. 

Frolic,  however,  not  fight,  was  the  ruling  interest  of  Jack 
son's  childhood.  He  pursued  his  sports  with  the  zeal  and 
energy  of  his  nature.  No  boy  ever  lived  who  liked  fun  better 
than  he,  and  his  fun,  at  that  day,  was  of  an  innocent  and 
rustic  character,  such  as  strengthens  the  constitution,  and 
gives  a  cheery  tone  to  the  feelings  ever  after.  It  is  a  way 
with  boys  to  have  certain  cant  words,  or  gibberish,  which 
they  delight  to  repeat  fifty  times  a  day,  to  the  wonder  of  their 
elders,  who,  forgetting  their  own  childhood,  can  not  conceive 
what  pleasure  there  can  be  in  saying  over  without  object  a 
form  of  words  without  meaning.  There  is  no  pleasure  in  it 
perhaps  ;  but  healthy  boys  are  so  bursting  with  life  that 
they  must  have  an  escape-valve  of  some  kind  that  can  be 
turned  at  any  moment.  A  specimen  of  Andy's  gibberish  is 
remembered  by  one  of  his  surviving  second  cousins,  who 
heard  it  from  his  father.  The  reader  may  make  what  he 
can  of  it. 

"  Set  the  case  :  you  are  Shauney  Kerr's  mare,  and  me 
Billy  Buck  ;  and  I  should  mount  you,  and  you  should  kick, 
fall,  fling  and  break  your  neck  ;  should  I  be  to  blame  for 
that  ?" 

Imagine  this  roared  out  by  young  Sandy-head  as  he  came 
leaping  headlong  from  the  school-house  door,  ready  to  defy  all 
young  creation  to  a  race,  a  wrestle  or  a  jumping  match,  while 
he  playfully  laid  sprawling  as  many  of  his  friends  as  he  could 
trip  unawares,  comforting  each  with  the  judirial  formula, 
"  Set  the  case  :  you  are  Shauney  Kerr's  mare,  and  me  Billy 
Buck  ;  and  I  should  mount  you,  and  you  should  kick,  fall, 
fling  and  break  your  neck  ;  should  I  be  to  blame  for  that  ?" 
There  you  have  Andy  Jackson. 

Of  his  conduct  within  the  school-room  there  is  little  to 


66  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1777. 

report.  A  letter  to  the  author  from  Dr.  Cyrus  L.  Hunter, 
of  Lincoln  county,  North  Carolina,  contains  the  substance 
of  all  that  can  now  be  gathered  on  this  subject : — 

"  My  father,  the  late  Rev.  Humphrey  Hunter,  of  Gaston  county,  emi 
grated  from  Ireland  to  this  country,  when  only  four  years  old,  with  a  wid 
owed  mother,  and  landed  at  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  in  1759.  Soon 
afterward,  they  continued  their  journey,  and  settled  in  the  extreme  south 
eastern  part  of  Mecklenburg,  now  Union,  county,  North  Carolina.  About  this 
period,  and  subsequently,  the  fertile  lands  of  the  Cutawba  river  andxits  trib 
utaries  were  attracting  a  numerous  emigration  from  the  northern  States.  In 
this  section  of  country  my  father  and  Andrew  Jackson  attended  school  to 
gether.  Jackson  was  several  years  the  younger.  He  boarded,  for  a  time,  at  my 
grandmother's.  There  was  a  school  about  this  time,  of  considerable  notoriety, 
in  the  Waxhaw  settlement.  I  can  not  positively  now  say,  from  my  father's 
narration,  whether  it  was  there,  or  at  some  other  primary  school,  they 
spent  a  portion  of  their  youthful  days  in  a  similar  pursuit — that  of  a  useful 
education.  It  is  possible  some  one  of  the  oldest  inhabitants  in  that  vicinity 
may  be  traditionally  enabled  to  point  out  the  precise  location  of  the  vener 
able  school-house,  as  the  chimney  spot  of  the  humble  mansion  in  which 
Jackson  was  born,  within  the  limits  of  North  Carolina,  is  still  visible,  like  a 
nmple  but  enduring  rnound  which  chronicles  an  important  event  in  history, 
and  calls  up  time-honored  remembrances.  In  that  neighborhood  my  father 
and  Jackson,  of  the  same  Scotch-Irish  stock,  imbued  with  the  same  relig 
ious  sentiments  and  reared  under  the  same  moral  training,  prosecuted  their 
studies  together  with  that  coidiality  of  feeling  which  pertains  to  kindred 
souls.  I  have  no  recollection  of  my  father  narrating  any  remarkable  pas 
sages  of  Jackson's  boyhood.  He  spoke  of  liis  making  commendable  prog 
ress  in  his  studies,  of  his  ardent  and  rather  quick  temperament.  The 
impression  left  upon  my  mind  would  lead  me  to  say  that  he  was  an 
impulsive  youth,  ambitious,  courageous  and  persevering  in  his  undertakings, 
My  father  also  spoke  of  him  being  remarkably  athletic.  They  frequently 
engaged  in  wrestling  and  jumping — two  of  the  most  prominent  sports  of 
that  early  period.  After  the  close  of  this  school,  my  father  entered  the 
army  in  defense  of  liberty,  and  thus  was  separated  in  future  life  from  his 
youthful  schoolmate." 

To  this  I  can  only  add  a  second-hand  reminiscence  of  a 
rainy-day  debate  between  Andy  and  one  of  his  uncles,  related 
to  me  by  a  son  of  that  uncle.  The  subject  of  discussion  was, 
What  makes  the  gentleman  ?  The  boy  said,  Education ; 
the  uncle.  Good  Principles.  The  question  was  earnestly  de- 


1777.]  MISCHIEVOUS     ANDY.  67 

bated  between  them,  without  either  being  able  to  convince 
the  other. 

If  our  knowledge  of  the  school-life  of  Jackson  is  scanty, 
we  are  at  no  loss  to  say  what  he  learned  and  what  he  failed 
to  learn  at  school.  He  learned  to  read,  to  write,  and  cast  ac 
counts — little  more.  If*  he  began,  as  he  may  have  done, 
to  learn  by  heart,  in  the  old-fashioned  way,  the  Latin  gram 
mar,  he  never  acquired  enough  of  it  to  leave  any  traces  of 
classical  knowledge  in  his  mind  or  his  writings.  In  some  of 
his  later  letters  there  may  be  found,  it  is  true,  an  occasional 
Latin  phrase  of  two  or  three  words,  but  so  quoted  as  to  show 
ignorance  rather  than  knowledge.  He  was  never  a  well- 
informed  man.  He  never  was  addicted  to  books.  He  never 
learned  to  write  the  English  language  correctly,  though  he 
often  wrote  it  eloquently  and  convincingly.  He  never  learned 
to  spell  correctly,  though  he  was  a  better  speller  than  Fred 
eric  II.,  Marlborough,  Napoleon,  or  Washington.  Few  men 
of  his  day,  and  no  women,  were  correct  spellers.  Indeed,  we 
may  say  that  all  the  most  illustrious  men  have  been  bad  spell 
ers,  except  those  who  could  not  spell  at  all.  The  scrupulous 
exactness  in  that  respect,  which  is  now  so  common,  was 
scarcely  known  three  generations  ago.  Even  in  the  manu 
scripts  of  Jefferson,  Burke,  Pope,  and  Addison,  there  are 
errors  of  spelling  and  capital  letters  which  it  is  difficult  to 
attribute  to  careless  penmanship.  Jackson's  bad  spelling 
has,  of  course,  been  much  exaggerated,  but  he  frequently  mis 
spelled  what  boys  call  "  hard  words ;"  and  sometimes  spelled 
the  same  word  in  two  or  three  different  ways  in  the  same  let 
ter.  His  mistakes,  however,  during  the  last  forty  years  of 
his  life,  did  not  average  more  than  five  to  a  page.  His  style, 
when  he  wrote  at  leisure  and  for  purposes  merely  formal,  was 
that  of  a  person  unaccustomed  to  composition.  Awkward 
repetitions  occur,  and  mistakes  in  grammar,  as  well  as  spell 
ing.  But  when  his  feelings  were  excited,  he  could  pour  a 
flood  of  vehement  eloquence  upon  paper,  and  with  such  rapid 
ity,  that  his  manuscript  would  be  wet  two  or  three  pages 
behind.  But  even  this  required  correction.  Not  one  public 


68  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1777. 

paper,  of  any  description,  signed  "Andrew  Jackson/'  ever 
reached  the  public  eye  exactly  as  Jackson  wrote  it.  Often, 
he  would  write  a  letter  or  a  dispatch,  have  it  copied  by  a 
secretary,  and  then  re-write  it  himself.  Some  of  his  most 
famous  passages — those  which  are  supposed  to  be  peculiarly 
Jacksonian — he  never  so  much  as  suggested  a  word  of,  nor 
saw  till  they  were  written,  nor  required  the  alteration  of  a 
syllable  before  they  were  dispatched.  It  is  nevertheless  a 
fact,  as  before  remarked,  that  he  was  more  truly  the  author 
of  his  public  writings  than  almost  any  others  of  our  public 
men  have  been  of  the  documents  which  bear  their  names. 
His  secretaries  wrote  with  his  fiery  mind,  though  with  their 
own  practiced  hands,  and  wrote  with  more  nerve  and  warmth 
when  writing  for  him  than  they  ever  could  for  themselves. 
Just  as  sub-editors  will  so  catch  the  spirit  and  manner  of  their 
chief,  as  to  write  articles  that  are  universally  taken  for  his 
— articles,  too,  more  forcible  and  pointed  than  the  juniors 
could  write  for  a  journal  of  their  own.  The  secret  was,  that 
Jackson  supplied  the  COURAGE — a  prime  ingredient  of  power 
ful  composition.  "  I  take  the  responsibility,"  he  wo,uld  say 
on  all  occasions,  when  a  subordinate  faltered. 

The  schools,  then,  contributed  little  to  the  equipment  of 
this  eager  boy  for  the  battle  of  life.  He  derived  much  from 
the  honest  and  pure  people  among  whom  he  was  brought  up. 
Their  instinct  of  honesty  was  strong  within  him  always.  He 
imbibed  a  reverence  for  the  character  of  woman,  and  a  love 
of  purity,  which,  amid  all  his  wild  ways,  kept  him  stainless. 
In  this  particular,  I  believe,  he  was  without  reproach  from 
youth  to  old  age.  He  deeply  loved  his  mother,  and  held  her 
memory  sacred  to  the  end  of  his  life.  He  used  often  to  speak 
of  the  courage  she  had  displayed  when  left  without  a  pro 
tector  in  the  wilderness,  and  would  sometimes  clinch  a  re 
mark  or  an  argument  by  saying,  "  That  I  learned  from  my 
good  old  mother."  He  once  said,  in  speaking  of  his  mother : 
"  One  of  the  last  injunctions  given  me  by  her,  was  never  to 
institute  a  suit  for  assault  and  battery,  or  for  defamation ; 
never  to  wound  the  feelings  of  others,  nor  suffer  my  own  to 


1777.]  MISCHIEVOUS     ANDY.  69 

be  outraged :  these  were  her  words  of  admonition  to  me ;  I 
remember  them  well,  and  have  never  failed  to  respect  them ; 
my  settled  course  through  life  has  been  to  bear  them  in  mind, 
and  never  to  insult  or  wantonly  to  assail  the  feelings  of  any 
one ;  and  yet  many  conceive  me  to  be  a  most  ferocious  ani 
mal,  insensible  to  moral  duty,  and  regardless  of  the  laws  both 
of  God  and  man."  * 

And  so  ends  our  too  meager  account  of  the  school  life  of 
this  remarkable  man. 

He  was  nine  years  old  when  the  Declaration  of  Independ 
ence  was  signed.  By  the  time  the  war  approached  the  Wax- 
haw  settlement,  bringing  blood  and  terror  with  it,  leaving 
desolation  behind  it,  closing  all  school-houses,  and  putting  a 
stop  to  the  peaceful  labors  of  the  people,  Andrew  Jackson 
was  a  little  more  than  thirteen.  His  brother  Hugh,  a  man 
in  stature,  if  not  in  years,  had  not  waited  for  the  war  to 
come  near  his  home,  but  had  mounted  his  horse  a  year  before, 
and  ridden  southward  to  meet  it.  He  was  one  of  the  troop 
ers  of  that  famous  regiment,  to  raise  and  equip  which,  its 
colonel,  William  Richardson  Davie,  spent  the  last  guinea  of 
his  inherited  estate.  Under  Colonel  Davie,  Hugh  Jackson 
fought  in  the  ranks  of  the  battle  of  Stono,  and  died,  after  the 
action,  of  heat  and  fatigue.  His  brother  Robert  was  a  strap 
ping  lad,  but  too  young  for  a  soldier,  and  was  still  at  home 
with  his  mother  and  Andrew,  when  Tarlton  and  his  dragoons 
thundered  along  the  red  roads  of  the  Waxhaws,  and  dyed 
them  a  deeper  red  with  the  blood  of  the  surprised  militia. 

*  Eaton's  Life  of  Jackson,  page  434. 


70  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1780. 

CHAPTER    V. 

THE     WAR     IN     THE     CAROLINAS. 

THE  yeoman's  service  which  Andrew  Jackson's  small  ex 
ploits  in  the  revolutionary  war  were  made  to  perform  in  three 
presidential  campaigns,  have  rendered  them  more  familiar  than 
credible  to  the  people  of  the  United  States.  For  the  same 
reason,  there  is  a  certain  unbelief  in  the  New  Orleans  cam 
paign,  the  finest  defense  of  native  land  recorded  in  recent 
history.  I  will  confess  that  it  was  to  me  a  surprise  to  discover 
that  the  stories  of  Jackson's  revolutionary  adventures,  when 
simply  told,  are  both  probable  and  true.  The  authority  for 
them  is  General  Jackson  himself.  Most  of  those  heretofore 
published,  and  some  not  yet  in  print,  I  have  heard  narrated 
by  surviving  friends  of  the  General,  as  they  were  accustomed 
to  hear  them  told  by  him.  Some  additional  incidents  I  gath 
ered  in  those  counties  of  the  Carolinas  wherein  he  wandered 
and  suffered  during  the  war. 

It  was  on  the  29th  of  May,  1780,  that  Tarleton,  with  three 
hundred  horsemen,  surprised  a  detachment  of  militia  in  the 
Waxhaw  settlement,  and  killed  one  hundred  and  thirteen  of 
them,  and  wounded  a  hundred  and  fifty.  The  wounded, 
abandoned  to  the  care  of  the  settlers,  were  quartered  in  the 
houses  of  the  vicinity  ;  the  old  log  Waxhaw  meeting-house 
itself  being  converted  into  a  hospital  for  the  most  desperate 
cases.  Mrs.  Jackson  was  one  of  the  kind  women  who  minis 
tered  to  the  wounded  soldiers  in  the  church,  and  under  that 
roof  her  boys  first  saw  what  war  was.  The  men  were  dread 
fully  mangled.  Some  had  received  as  many  as  thirteen 
wounds,  and  none  less  than  three.  For  many  days  Andrew 
and  his  brother  assisted  their  mother  in  waiting  upon  the 
sick  men  ;  Andrew,  more  in  rage  than  pity,  though  pitiful 
by  nature,  burning  to  avenge  their  wounds  and  his  brother's 
death. 


1780.]  THE     WAR     IN     THE    CAROLINAS.  71 

Tarleton  had  fallen  upon  the  Waxhaws  like  a  summer 
storm,  which  bursts  upon  us  unawares,  does  its  destructive 
work,  and  rolls  thundering  away.  The  families  who  had  fled 
returned  soon  to  their  homes,  and  the  wounded  men  recovered, 
or  found  rest  in  the  old  church-yard.  Then  came  rumors  of 
the  approach  of  a  larger  body  of  royal  troops  under  Lord 
Rawdon,  who  soon  arrived  in  the  Waxhaw  country,  de 
manding  of  every  one  a  formal  promise  not  to  take  part  in 
the  war  thereafter.  Mrs.  Jackson,  her  boys,  the  Crawfords 
and  a  majority  of  their  neighbors,  abandoned  their  homes  and 
retired  a  few  miles  to  the  north,  rather  than  enter  into  a 
covenant  so  abhorrent  to  their  feelings.  A  few  days  later, 
Rawdon  was  compelled  to  retrace  his  steps,  and  the  Waxhaw 
people  returned  to  their  farms  again.  Once  more  that  sum 
mer  they  were  alarmed  by  a  hostile  assemblage  a  few  miles 
distant,  and  prepared  for  a  third  flight ;  but  the  "  murderous 
tories"  were  dispersed  in  time,  and  our  friends  still  clung  to 
their  homes.  The  men  who  were  able  to  bear  arms  were  gen 
erally  away  with  their  companies,  and  the  women,  children 
and  old  men  passed  their  days  and  nights  in  fear,  ready  at 
any  moment  for  flight. 

Tarleton's  massacre  at  the  Waxhaws  kindled  the  flames 
uf  war  in  all  that  region  of  the  Carolinas.  Many  notable  ac 
tions  were  fought,  and  some  striking  though  unimportant 
advantages  were  gained  by  the  patriot  forces.  Andrew  Jack 
son  and  his  brother  Robert  were  present  at  Sumpter's  gallant 
blundering  attack  upon  the  British  post  of  Hanging  Rock, 
near  Waxhaw,  where  the  patriots  half  gained  the  day,  and 
lost  it  by  beginning  too  soon  to  drink  the  rum  they  captured 
from  the  enemy.  The  Jackson  boys  rode  on  this  expedition 
with  Colonel  Davie,  a  most  brave,  self-sacrificing  officer,  who, 
as  we  have  said,  commanded  the  troop  of  which  Hugh  Jack 
son  was  a  member  when  he  died  after  the  battle  of  Stono. 
Neither  of  the  boys  were  attached  to  Davie's  company,  nor 
is  it  likely  that  Andrew,  a  boy  of  thirteen,  did  more  than 
witness  the  affair  at  the  Hanging  Rock.  If  he  was  in  a  po 
sition  to  observe  the  movements  of  the  troops,  or  if  he  over- 


72  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1780. 

heard  the  comments  of  Colonel  Davie  upon  the  battle,  he  re 
ceived  a  lesson  in  the  art  of  war.  Colonel  Davie  attributed 
the  failure  of  the  attack  to  the  circumstance  that  the  men 
dismounted  a  hundred  yards  too  late.  "  Dismounting  under 
fire  is  an  operation  that  tasks  the  discipline  of  the  best  troops, 
and  is  sure  to  discompose  militia,"  maintained  Colonel  Davie 
in  the  council.  Sumpter  thought  it  best  to  dash  in  on  horse 
back  to  a  point  near  the  enemy's  works  ;  then  dismount,  and 
rush  upon  them  on  foot.  This  was  attempted,  but  the  at 
tempt  was  only  half  successful,  owing  to  the  confusion  caused 
by  dismounting  under  fire.  The  rum  finished  what  error  be 
gan,  and  the  affair  ended  in  a  debauch  instead  of  a  victory. 

This  Colonel  Davie,  Hugh  Jackson's  old  commander,  was 
the  man,  above  all  others  who  led  Carolina  troops  in  the  Rev 
olution,  that  the  Jackson  boys  admired.  He  was  a  man  after 
Andrew's  own  heart  ;  swift,  but  wary  ;  bold  in  planning  en 
terprises,  but  most  cautious  in  execution  ;  sleeplessly  vigil 
ant ;  untiringly  active  ;  one  of  those  cool,  quick  men  who 
apply  mother- wit  to  the  art  of  war  ;  who  are  good  soldiers 
because  they  are  earnest  and  clear-sighted  men.  So  far  as 
any  man  was  General  Jackson's  model  soldier,  William  Rich 
ardson  Davie  of  North  Carolina  was  the  individual.  Davie, 
it  is  worth  mentioning,  was  a  native  of  England,  and  lived 
there  till  he  was  five  years  old. 

The  boys  rejoined  their  mother  at  the  Waxhaw  settle 
ment.  On  the  16th  of  August,  1780,  occurred  the  great  dis 
aster  of  the  war  in  the  South,  the  defeat  of  General  Gates. 
The  victor,  Cornwallis,  moved,  three  weeks  after,  with  his 
whole  army,  toward  the  Waxhaws  ;  which  induced  Mrs. 
Jackson  and  her  boys  once  more  to  abandon  their  home  for  a 
safer  retreat  north  of  the  scene  of  war. 

How  Mrs.  Jackson  and  her  son  Robert  performed  this 
journey  in  those  terrible  days,  there  is  no  information.  But 
through  the  excellent  memory  of  a  lady  who  died  only  a  very 
few  years  ago,  the  reader  can  have  a  clear  glimpse  of  Andrew 
as  he  appeared  to  mortal  view  while  he  was  on  his  northward 
journey,  just  after  the  defeat  of  Gates.  The  lady  referred  to 


1780.]  THE     WAR     IN     THE     CAROLINAS.  73 

was  Mrs.  Susan  Smart,  to  whose  high  respectability  and  care 
ful  veracity  all  the  people  of  Charlotte,  North  Carolina,  near 
which  she  lived  for  fourscore  years,  will  cheerfully  testify. 
Her  single  reminiscence  of  Andrew  Jackson  I  obtained  from 
her  intimate  friends  in  Charlotte  to  whom  she  was  in  the 
habit  of  telling  it. 

Time — late  in  the  afternoon  of  a  hot,  dusty  September 
day  in  1780.  Place — the  high  road,  five  miles  below  Char 
lotte,  where  Mrs.  Smart  then  lived,  a  saucy  girl  of  fourteen, 
at  the  home  of  her  parents.  The  news  of  Grates'  defeat  had 
flown  over  the  country,  but  every  one  was  gasping  for  details, 
especially  those  who  had  fathers  and  brothers  in  the  patriot 
army.  The  father  and  brother  of  Mrs.  Smart  were  in  that 
army,  and  the  family, -as  yet,  knew  nothing  of  their  fate  ;  a 
condition  of  suspense  to  which  the  women  of  the  Carolinas 
were  well  used  during  the  revolutionary  war.  It  was  the 
business  of  Susan,  during  those  days,  to  take  post  at  one  of 
the  windows,  and  there  watch  for  travelers  coming  from  the 
South  ;  and,  upon  spying  one,  to  fly  out  upon  him  and  ask 
him  for  news  of  the  army,  and  of  the  corps  to  which  her  father 
and  brother  were  attached.  Thus  posted,  she  descried,  on  the 
afternoon  to  which  we  have  referred,  riding  rapidly  on  a 
"grass  pony,"  (one  of  the  ponies  of  the  South  Carolina 
swamps,  rough,  Shetlandish,  wild),  a  tall,  slender,  "  gang 
ling  fellow  '"  legs  long  enough  to  meet  under  the  pony  al 
most  ;  damaged  wide-brimmed  hat  flapping  down  over  his 
face,  which  was  yellow  and  worn  ;  the  figure  covered  with 
dust  ;  tired-looking,  as  though  the  youth  had  ridden  till  he 
could  scarcely  sit  on  his  pony  ;  the  forlornest  apparition  that 
ever  revealed  itself  to  the  eyes  of  Mrs.  Susan  Smart  during 
the  whole  of  her  long  life.  She  ran  out  to  the  road  and 
hailed  him.  He  reined  in  his  pony,  when  the  following  brief 
conversation  ensued  between  them  : — 

She.—"  Where  are  you  from  ?" 

He.—"  From  below." 

She. — "  Where  are  you  going  ?" 

He.— "Above/' 


74  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1780. 

She.— "  Who  are  you  for  ?" 

He.—"  The  Congress." 

She. — "  What  are  you  doing  below  ?" 

He. — "  Oh,  we  are  popping  them  still." 

She  (to  herself). — "It's  mighty  poor  popping  such  as 
you  will  do,  any  how."  (Aloud). — "  What's  your  name  ?' 

He. — "  Andrew  Jackson." 

She  asked  him  respecting  her  father's  regiment,  and  he 
gave  her  what  information  he  possessed.  He  then  galloped 
away  toward  Charlotte,  and  Susan  returned  to  the  house  to 
tell  his  news  and  ridicule  the  figure  he  had  cut — the  gangling 
fellow  on  the  grass  pony.  Years  after,  she  used  to  laugh  as 
she  told  the  story  ;  and  later,  when  the  most  thrilling  news 
of  the  time  used  to  come  to  remote  Charlotte  associated  with 
the  name  of  Andrew  Jackson,  still  she  would  bring  out  her 
little  tale,  until,  at  last,  she  made  it  get  votes  for  him  for  the 
presidency. 

Good  fortune  gave  me  the  acquaintance,  in  Charlotte,  of 
a  gentleman  who  is  the  grandson  of  the  lady  to  whose  house 
Andrew  was  going  on  this  occasion.  He  was  bound  to  Mrs 
Wilson's,  a  few  miles  above  Charlotte,  where  he  spent  several 
weeks.  Mrs.  Wilson,  a  distant  connection  of  Mrs.  Jackson, 
was  the  mother  of  an  eminent  clergyman  of  North  Carolina, 
Rev.  Dr.  Wilson,  who  was  a  boy  when  Andrew  Jackson  rode 
to  his  mother's  house  on  the  grass  pony.  The  two  boys  soon 
became  friends  and  playmates,  though  the  rough  ways  and 
wild  words  of  Andrew  rather  astonished  the  staid  son  of  Mrs. 
Wilson,  as  he  used  many  a  time  to  relate.  The  gentleman 
referred  to  above  is  a  son  of  Dr.  Wilson,  and  remembers  two 
or  three  interesting  things  which  his  father  and  grandmother 
were  accustomed  to  report  of  the  boy. 

At  Mrs.  Wilson's,  Andrew  paid  for  his  board  by  doing 
what  New  England  people  call  "chores."  He  brought  in 
wood,  "pulled  fodder,"  picked  beans,  drove  cattle,  went  to 
mill  and  took  the  farming  utensils  to  be  mended.  Respect 
ing  the  last  named  duty  there  is  a  striking  reminiscence. 
"  Never,"  Dr.  Wilson  would  say,  "  did  Andrew  come  home 


1781.]          THE     WAR     IN     THE     CAKOLINAS.  75 

from  the  shops  without  bringing  with  him  some  new  weapon 
with  which  to  kill  the  enemy.  Sometimes  it  was  a  rude 
spear,  which  he  would  forge  while  waiting  for  the  blacksmith 
to  finish  his  job.  Sometimes  it  was  a  club  or  a  tomahawk. 
Once  he  fastened  the  blade  of  a  scythe  to  a  pole,  and,  on 
reaching  home,  began  to  cut  down  the  weeds  with  it  that 
grew  about  the  .house,  assailing  them  with  extreme  fury,  and 
occasionally  uttering  words  like  these  : 

"  Oh,  if  I  were  a  man,  how  I  would  sweep  down  the 
British  with  my  grass  blade  !" 

Dr.  Wilson  remembered  saying  to  his  mother  when  they 
were  talking  of  Andrew  one  day, 

"  Mother,  Andy  will  fight  his  way  in  the  world." 

The  doctor  lived  to  see  his  prediction  fulfilled,  and, 
though  he  would  never  vote  for  his  old  companion,  he 
rejoiced  exceedingly  when  he  heard,  sixty  years  after,  that 
this  swearing,  roystering  lad  had  come  to  be  a  contrite 
old  man.  Mrs.  Wilson's  chief  recollection  of  her  young 
guest  was  that  he  was  particularly  willing  to  go  out  with  her 
into  the  garden  and  help  her  pick  beans  for  dinner,  which 
she  attributed  to  the  obligingness  of  his  disposition,  but 
added,  "  Andy  did  like  corn  and  beans,  though." 

Whether  Mrs.  Jackson  and  Robert  lived  at  the  Wilsons' 
during  this  autumn  and  winter,  along  with  Andrew,  or  at 
some  other  house  in  the  vicinity,  is  not  remembered.  In 
February,  1781,  the  country  about  the  Waxhaws  being  tran 
quil,  because  subdued,  Mrs.  Jackson,  her  sons  and  many  of 
her  neighbors,  returned  to  their  ravaged  homes.  Andrew 
soon  after  passed  his  fourteenth  birthday,  an  overgrown 
youth,  as  tall  as  a  man,  but  weakly  from  having  grown  too 
fast.  Then  ensued  a  spring  and  summer  of  small,  fierce, 
intestine  warfare  ;  a  war  of  whig  and  tory,  neighbor  against 
neighbor,  brother  against  brother,  and  even  father  against 
son.  General  Jackson  used  to  give,  among  other  instances  of 
the  madness  that  prevailed,  the  case  of  a  whig  who,  having 
found  a  friend  murdered  and  mutilated,  devoted  himself  to 
the  slaying  of  tories.  He  hunted  and  lay  in  wait  for  them, 


76  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1781. 

and,  before  the  war  ended,  had  killed  twenty  ;  and  then, 
recovering  from  that  insanity,  lived  the  rest  of  his  days  a 
conscience-stricken  wretch.  The  story  of  Mrs.  Motte,  who 
assisted  to  fire  her  own  house — the  finest  house  in  all  the 
country  round — rather  than  it  should  serve  as  a  British  post, 
was  another  which  the  General  remembered  of  this  period. 

Without  detaining  the  reader  with  a  detail  of  the  revolu 
tionary  history  of  the  Carolinas,  I  yet  desire  to  show  what  a 
war-charged  atmosphere  it  was  that  young  Andrew  breathed 
during  this  forming  period  of  his  life,  especially  toward  the 
close  of  the  war,  after  the  great  operations  ceased.  The 
reader  shall,  at  least,  have  a  vivid  glimpse  or  two  of  the  Car 
olinas  during  the  Kevolution. 

The  people  in  the  upper  country  of  the  Carolinas  little 
expected  that  the  war  would  ever  reach  settlements  so  remote, 
so  obscure,  so  scattered  as  theirs.  And  it  did  not  for  some 
years.  When  at  last  the  storm  of  war  drew  near  their  bor 
ders,  it  found  them  a  divided  people.  The  old  sentiment  of 
loyalty""'  was  still  rooted  in  many  minds.  There  were  many 
who  had  taken  a  recent  and  special  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
king,  which  they  considered  binding  in  all  circumstances. 
There  were  Highlanders,  clannish  and  religiously  loyal,  who 
pointed  to  the  text,  "  Fear  God  and  honor  the  king/'  and 
overlooked  the  fact  that  the  biblical  narrative  condemns  the 
Jews  for  desiring  a  kingly  government.  There  were  Mora 
vians  and  Quakers,  who  conscientiously  opposed  all  war. 
There  were  Catholic  Irish,  many  of  whom  sided  with  the 
king.  There  were  Protestant  Scotch-Irish,  whigs  and  agita 
tors  in  the  old  country,  whigs  and  fervent  patriots  in  the  new. 
There  were  place-holders,  who  adhered  to  their  official  bread 
and  dignity.  There  were  trimmers,  who  espoused  the  side 
that  chanced  to  be  strongest.  The  approach  and  collision  of 
hostile  forces  converted  most  of  these  factions  into  belliger- 

*  Mecklenburgh,  the  county  of  North  Carolina  in  which  Jackson  was  born, 
from  which  county  Union  was  afterwards  set  off,  was  so  named  in  honor  of 
Queen  Charlotte,  who  was  a  princess  of  Meeklenburgh.  Hence,  also,  the  names 
Charlotte  and  Queen's  College. 


1781.]  THE      WAR     IN      THE     CAROLINAS.  77 

ents,  who  waged  a  most  fierce  and  deadly  war  upon  one 
another,  renewing  on  this  new  theater  the  border  wars  of 
another  age  and  country.  It  was  a  war  of  chiefs  rather  than 
generals,  of  banditti  rather  than  armies  ;  a  war  of  exploits, 
expeditions,  surprises,  sudden  devastation,  fierce  and  long 
pursuits  ;  a  war  half  Indian  and  half  Scotch-clannish.  Such 
warfare  intensely  excites  the  feelings,  and  allows  no  interval 
of  serenity. 

Who  can  imagine  the  state  of  things  when  such  an  occur 
rence  as  this  could  take  place,  and  be  thought  quite  regular 
and  correct  ?  "A  few  days  afterward  (1780),  in  Kutherford 
county,  N.  C.  (a  hundred  miles  from  Waxhaw),  the  principal 
officers  held  a  court  martial  over  some  of  the  most  audacious 
and  murderous  tories,  and  selected  thirty-two  as  victims  for 
destruction,  and  commenced  hanging  three  at  a  time,  until 
they  hung  nine,  and  respited  the  rest/'*  This  is  mentioned 
without  remark  in  a  matter-of-fact  account  of  the  battle  of 
King's  Mountain,  by  an  officer  who  fought  in  that  battle. 

And  there  is  a  little  story  of  one  Hicks,  the  scene  of  which 
was  the  Scotch-Irish  region  of  North  Carolina,  within  fifty 
miles  of  Waxhaw.  A  band  of  tories  came  to  his  solitary 
house  one  dark  night,  upon  the  common  errand  of  spoliation 
and  murder.  "  Having  locked  the  doors  and  made  the  best 
arrangements  he  could,  at  the  moment,  he  kept  himself  con 
cealed  and  told  his  wife  not  to  open  the  door  unless  it  became 
necessary  in  order  to  prevent  them  from  breaking  it  down. 
Accordingly,  when  they  demanded  admittance,  she  mildly 
refused,  tellinw  them  that  she  could  not  admit  them  at  that 

J  O 

hour  of  the  night,  and  requested  them  not  to  trouble  her  any 
further ;  but  when  they  got  axes  and  were  about  to  break  it 
open,  she  requested  them  not  to  break  it  and  she  would  open 
it  for  them.  During  this  time  Hicks  had  remained  silent, 
and  kept  himself  where  he  could  not  be  seen.  His  wife  had 
been  the  only  spokesman,  and  they  did  not  know  that  there 
was  anybody  else  in  the  house,  except  from  the  intelligence 

*  Wheeler's  History  of  North  Caroling  ii.,  107. 
VOL.  i. — 6 


78  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1781. 

which  they  had  received  before  they  came.  Having  opened 
the  door,  when  the  foremost  man  entered,  and  as  soon  as  he 
had  fairly  got  inside.  Hicks  shot  him  dead  on  the  spot,  and 
the  rest  became  panic-struck  and  gave  back.  This  was  a 
shock  which  they  did  not  expect,  and  such  an  act,  so  deliber 
ately  and  promptly  done,  made  the  impression  on  them  that 
there  must  be  more  men  in  the  house.  The  darkness  aided 
their  imagination,  and,  as  the  one  who  had  been  killed  was 
their  leader,  and  the  most  courageous  one  among  them,  they 
would  not  venture  to  march  over  his  dead  body  into  the  midst 
of  that  mysterious  silence,  but  all  fled  with  precipitation,  and 
never  attempted  again  to  assail  his  house."* 

There  is  another  story,  told  by  the  same  collector  (who  is 
a  distinguished  clergyman  of  North  Carolina),  which  throws 
light  upon  the  state  of  things,  though  it  tasks  the  reader's 
credulity : — 

"  The  opposite  parties  in  that  region  had  so  often  assumed  each  other's 
distinctive  badges,  that  a  man,  especially  one  who  had  taken  no  part  in 
the  military  operations  of  the  day,  when  he  met  a  company,  unless  he 
knew  some  of  them  personally,  or  had  some  way  of  distinguishing  them 
other  than  their  cockades  or  party  uniform,  would  be  utterly  at  a  loss ; 
and  such,  unfortunately,  was  the  case  with  Fred.  Smith.  One  of  these 
parties  came  upon  him  unexpectedly  one  day  in  the  neighborhood,  and, 
not  knowing  him,  asked  him  the  usual  question  in  such  cases,  '  Who  are 
you  for  ?'  and  having  to  guess,  he  happened  to  guess  wrong,  naming  the 
party  opposite  to  the  one  into  whose  hands  he  had  fallen.  Without  fur 
ther  proof  or  examination  the  order  was  .given,  '  Hang  him  up,'  and  it 
was  instantly  obeyed.  As  they  did  not  design  to  kill  him  outright,  but 
merely  to  teach  him  a  salutary  lesson,  after  letting  him  hang  as  long  as 
they  thought  they  could  with  safety,  they  cut  him  down  and  let  him  go. 

"  Not  long  after,  the  other  party  met  with  him,  in  a  diiferent  direction, 
and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  put  to  him  the  usual  test  question,  *  Who  are 
you  for  ?'  Whether  he  had  ever  learned  the  i  rule  of  contraries'  we 
know  not,  but,  as  he  had  already  suffered  so  much  for  saying  that  he  be 
longed  to  such  a  party,  he  concluded  that  it  could  not  be  worse  with  him, 
and  named  the  other,  that  is,  the  one  which  had  hung  him  before.  As  he 
had  to  guess  again  without  any  thing  to  guide  him,  he  unfortunately 

*  Caruthers'  .Revolutionary  Incidents  in  the  Old  North  State,  ii,,  .251. 


1781.]          THE      WAR     IN     THE     CAROLINA  S.  79 

guessed  wrong,  and  the  order  was  given,  '  Hang  him  up,'  which  was 
forthwith  obeyed.  With  quite  as  much  humanity  as  the  others,  after  he 
had  hung  as  long  as  they  thought  he  would  bear  to  hang  without  '  giving 
up  the  ghost,'  they  cut  him  down  and  let  him  go,  with  an  earnest  but 
friendly  admonition  that  if  they  ever  found  him  again  on  the  wrong  side  it 
would  be  the  last  of  him. 

"  In  process  of  time,  some  other  company  met  with  him,  and  not 
knowing  him,  asked  him  the  same  question,  l  Who  are  you  for  ?'  but 
having  suffered  so  much  already  from  both  the  contending  parties,  and  not 
wishing  to  run  the  risk  of  suffering  the  same  again  for  a  mere  mistake  of 
name,  he  concluded  to  try  another,  and  said  he  was  for  the  devil.  Whether 
this  was  a  mere  guess  or  certain  truth  we  have  not  learned ;  but  they 
thought  if  that  was  the  case,  the  sooner  he  was  put  out  of  the  way  the 
better.  So,  making  the  limb  of  a  tree  answer  for  a  gallows  and  a  grape 
vine  for  a  halter,  they  swung  him  off  and  immediately  left  him,  thinking 
that  they  had  started  him  on  his  journey  to  '  that  undiscovered  country 
from  whose  bourne  no  traveler  returns ;'  but  one  of  them,  more  humane  or 
more  considerate  than  the  rest,  made  an  excuse  to  stay  behind,  and,  as 
they  were  soon  out  of  sight  by  descending  the  hill  or  by  following  a  turn 
in  the  road,  he  cut  him  down  before  he  was  quite  dead."* 

But,  of  all  the  stories  of  the  war  in  the  South,  there  is 
none  which  seems  to  reveal  so  much  of  the  spirit  and  tem 
per  of  the  time,  as  that  simple  but  thrilling  narrative  of  the 
young  Carolina  heroine,  Mrs.  Slocumb.  Who  that  reads  it 
can  ever  forget  it  ? 

"  The  men  all  left  on  Sunday  morning.  More  than  eighty  went  from 
this  house  with  my  husband.  I  looked  at  them  well,  and  I  could  see  that 
every  man  had  mischief  in  him.  I  knew  a  coward  as  soon  as  I  set  my 
eyes  upon  him.  The  tories  more  than  once  tried  to  frighten  me,  but  they 
always  showed  coward  at  the  bare  insinuation  that  our  troops  were  about. 
Well,  they  got  off  in  high  spirits,  every  man  stepping  high  and  light,  and  I 
slept  soundly  and  quietly  that  night  and  worked  hard  all  the  next  day ; 
but  I  kept  thinking  where  they  had  got  to,  how  far,  where  and  how 
many  of  the  regulars  and  tories  they  would  meet ;  and  I  could  not  keep 
myself  from  that  study.  I  went  to  bed  at  the  usual  time,  but  could  not 
sleep.  As  I  lay — whether  waking  or  sleeping,  I  know  not — '  I  had  a  dream,' 
yet  it '  was  not  all  a  dream.'  (She  used  the  words,  unconsciously,  of  the 
poet  who  was  not  then  in  being.)  I  saw  distinctly  a  body  wrapped  in  my 

*  Caruthers'  Revolutionary  Incidents  in  the  Old  North  State,  ii.,  253. 


80  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON. 

husband's  guard  coat,  bloody,  dead,  and  others,  dead  and  wounded,  on  the 
ground  about  him.  I  saw  them  plainly  and  distinctly.  I  uttered  a  cry, 
and  sprang  to  my  feet  on  the  floor ;  and  so  strong  was  the  impressiou  on 
my  mind  that  I  rushed  in  the  direction  the  vision  appeared,  and  came  up 
against  the  side  of  the  house.  The  fire  in  the  room  gave  little  light,  and  I 
gazed  in  every  direction  to  catch  another  glimpse  of  the  scene.  I  raised 
the  light.  Every  tiling  was  still  and  quiet.  My  child  was  sleeping,  but 
my  woman  was  awakened  by  my  crying  out  or  jumping  on  the  floor.  If 
ever  I  felt  fear,  it  was  at  that  moment.  Seated  on  the  bed,  I  reflected  a 
few  moments,  and  said  aloud,  '  I  must  go  to  him.1  I  told  the  woman  I 
could  not  sleep,  and  would  ride  down  the  road.  She  appeared  in  great 
alarm  ;  but  I  merely  told  her  to  lock  the  door  after  me,  and  look  after  the 
child.  I  went  to  the  stable,  saddled  my  mare — as  fleet  and  easy  a  nag  as 
ever  traveled — and  in  one  moment  I  was  tearing  down  the  road  at  full 
speed.  The  cool  night  seemed,  after  a  mile  or  two's  gallop,  to  bring  reflec 
tion  with  it,  and  I  asked  myself  where  I  was  going,  and  for  what  purpose. 
Again  and  a;j,ain  I  was  tempted  to  turn  back,  but  I  was  soon  ten  miles  from 
home.  I  knew  the  general  route  our  little  army  expected  to  take,  and  at  day 
break  I  w;is  thirty  miles  from  home,  and  had  followed  them  without  hesita 
tion.  About  sunrise,  I  came  upon  a  group  of  women  and  children  standing  and 
sitting  by  the  roadside,  each  one  of  them  showing  the  same  anxiety  of  mind 
I  felt.  Stopping  a  few  minutes,  I  inquired  if  the  battle  had  been  fought. 
They  knew  nothing,  but  were  assembled  on  the  road  to  catch  intelligence. 
They  thought  Caswell  had  taken  the  right  of  the  Wilmington  road  and  gone 
toward  the  north-west  (Cape  Fear).  Again  was  I  skimming  over  the 
ground  through  a  country  thinly  settled  and  very  poor  and  swampy ;  but 
neither  my  own  spirits  nor  my  beau  tiful  nag's  failed  in  the  least.  We 
followed  the  well-marked  trail  of  the  troops.  The  sun  must  have  been 
well  up,  say  eight  or  nine  o'clock,  when  I  heard  a  sound  like  thunder, 
which  I  knew  must  be  cannon.  It  was  the  first  time  I  ever  heard  a  can 
non.  I  stopped  still.  Presently  the  cannon  thundered  again.  The  battle 
was  then  fighting.  '  What  a  fool !'  thought  I ;  '  my  husband  could  not 
be  dead  last  night,  and  the  battle  only  fighting  now !  Still,  as  I  am  so 
near,  I  will  go  on  and  see  how  they  come  on  and  see  how  they  come  out.' 
So  away  we  went,  faster  than  ever,  and  soon  I  found  by  the  noise  of  the  guns 
that  I  was  near  the  fight.  Again  I  stopped.  I  could  hear  muskets,  I 
could  hear  rifles  and  I  could  hear  shouting.  I  spoke  to  my  mare  and 
dashed  on  in  the  direction  of  the  firing  and  shouts,  now  louder  than  ever. 
The  blind  path  I  had  been  following  brought  me  into  the  Wilmington  road 
leading  to  Moore's  Creek  Bridge,  a  few  hundred  yards  below  the  bridge.  A 
few  yards  from  the  road,  under  a  cluster  of  trees,  were  lying  perhaps  twenty 
men.  They  were  the  wounded.  I  knew  the  spot,  the  very  trees,  and 
the  position  of  the  men  I  knew  as  if  I  had  seen  it  a  thousand  times. 


1781.]  THE     WAR     IN     THE     CAROLINAS.  81 

I  had  seen  it  in  my  dream  all  night!  I  saw  all  at  once;  but,  in  an  in 
stant,  my  whole  soul  was  centered  in  one  spot ;  for  there,  wrapped  in  his 
bloody  guard-cloak,  was  my  husband's  body !  How  I  passed  the  few  yards 
from  my  saddle  to  this  place,  I  never  knew.  I  remember  uncovering  his 
head  and  seeing  a  face  clothed  with  gore  from  a  dreadful  wound  across  the 
temple.  I  put  my  hand  on  the  bloody  face  ;  'twas  warm,  and  an  unknown 
voice  begged  for  water.  A  small  camp  kettle  was  lying  near,  and  a  stream 
of  water  was  close  by.  I  brought  it,  poured  some  into  his  mouth,  washed 
his  face,  and  behold  it  was  Frank  Cogdell !  He  soon  revived  and  could 
speak.  I  was  washing  the  wound  in  his  head.  Said  he,  '  It  is  not  that  ; 
it  is  that  hole  in  my  leg  that  is  Tdlling  me'  A  puddle  of  blood  was  standing 
on  the  ground  about  his  feet.  I  took  his  knife,  cut  away  his  trowsers  and 
stocking,  and  found  the  blood  came  from  a  shot-hole  through  and  through 
the  fleshy  part  of  his  leg.  I  looked  about  and  could  see  nothing  that 
looked  as  if  it  would  do  for  dressing  wounds  but  some  heart  leaves.  I 
gathered  a  handful  and  bound  them  tight  to  the  holes,  and  the  bleeding 
stopped.  I  then  went  to  the  others,  and,  doctor !  I  dressed  the  wounds 
of  many  a  brave  fellow  who  did  good  fighting  long  after  that  day.  I  had 
not  inquired  for  my  husband ;  but,  while  I  was  busy,  Caswell  came  up. 
He  appeared  very  much  surprised  to  see  me,  and  was,  with  his  hat  in 
hand,  about  to  pay  some  compliment ;  but  I  interrupted  him  by  asking, 
'  Where  is  my  husband  ?'  '  Where  he  ought  to  be,  madam  ;  in  pursuit  of 
the  enemy.  But  pray,'  said  he,  '  how  came  you  here  ?'  '  Oh,  I  thought, 
replied  I,  *  you  would  need  nurses  as  well  as  soldiers.  See !  I  have  dressed 
many  of  these  good  fellows ;  and  here  is  one'  (going  to  Frank  and  lifting 
hun  up  with  my  arm  under  his  head  so  that  he  could  drink  some  more 
water)  '  would  have  died  before  any  of  you  men  could  have  helped  him.' 
'  I  believe  you,'  said  Frank.  Just  then  I  looked  up,  and  my  husband,  as 
bloody  as  a  butcher,  and  as  muddy  as  a  ditcher,  stood  before  me.  '  Why, 
Mary  !'  he  exclaimed,  l  what  are  you  doing  there  ?  Hugging  Frank  Cog- 
dell,  the  greatest  reprobate  in  the  army  ?'  '  I  don't  care,'  I  cried,  '  Frank 
is  a  brave  fellow,  a  good  soldier,  and  a  true  friend  to  Congress.'  '  True, 
true,  every  word  of  it,'  said  Caswell.  '  You  are  right,  madam ;'  with  the 
lowest  possible  bow.  I  could  not  tell  my  husband  what  brought  me  there. 
I  was  so  happy,  and  so  were  all.  It  was  a  glorious  victory  ;  I  came  just  at 
the  height  of  the  enjoyment.  I  knew  my  husband  was  surprised,  but  I 
could  see  he  was  not  displeased  with  me.  It  was  night  again  before  our 
excitement  had  all  subsided.  Many  prisoners  were  brought  in,  and  among 
them  some  very  obnoxious;  but  the  worst  of  the  tories  were  not  taken 
prisoners.  They  were,  for  the  most  part,  left  in  the  woods  and  swamps 
wherever  they  were  overtaken.  I  begged  for  some  of  the  poor  prisoners, 
and  Caswell  readily  told  me  none  should  be  hurt  but  such  as  had  been 
guilty  of  murder  or  house-burning.  In  the  middle  of  the  night  I  again 


82  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1781. 

mounted  my  mare  and  started  home.  Caswell  and  my  husband  wanted 
me  to  stay  till  next  morning,  and  they  would  send  a  party  with  me ;  but 
no !  I  wanted  to  see  my  child,  and  told  them  they  could  send  no  party 
who  could  keep  up  with  me.  What  a  happy  ride  I  had  back !  and  with 
what  joy  did  I  embrace  my  child  as  he  ran  to  meet  me  !"* 

No  boy  of  the  least  spirit  could  escape  the  contagion  of 
feelings  like  this.  There  was  certainly  one  who  did  not. 
There  were  others,  also,  as  we  may  infer  from  one  of  Mr. 
Lossing's  anecdotes  : — "  The  British  officers  were  hospitably 
entertained  by  Dr.  Anthony  Newman,  notwithstanding  he 
was  a  whig.  There,  in  the  presence  of  Tarleton  and  others, 
Dr.  Newman's  two  little  sons  were  engaged  in  playing  the 
game  of  the  battle  of  the  Cowpens  with  grains  of  corn,  a  red 
grain  representing  the  British  officers,  and  a  white  one  the 
Americans.  Washington  and  Tarleton  were  particularly 
represented,  and  as  one  pursued  the  other,  as  in  a  real  battle, 
the  little  fellows  shouted,  i  Hurrah  for  Washington,  Tarleton 
runs  !  Hurrah  for  Washington  !'  Tarleton  looked  on  for 
awhile,  but  becoming  irritated,  he  exclaimed,  i  See  the  cursed 
little  rebels/  " 

This  mention  of  Tarleton  brings  to  mind  a  scene  which 
most  strikingly  exhibits  the  character  of  a  man  who  stamped 
his  character  upon  the  war  in  the  Carolinas.  It  was  de 
scribed,  with  unusual  ability,  years  after,  by  a  gentleman 
whom  Cornwallis  had  once  employed  to  convey  a  dispatch  to 
Tarleton.  The  narrative  was  published,  long  ago,  in  the 
Petersburg  Intelligencer,  and  had  a  great  run  at  the  time, 
as  such  a  piece  could  not  fail  to  have  : — 

"  As  soon,"  wrote  the  old  tory  messenger,  "  as  I  came  in  view  of  the 
British  lines  I  hastened  to  deliver  myself  up  to  the  nearest  patrol,  inform 
ing  him  that  I  was  the  bearer  of  important  dispatches  from  Lord  Corn 
wallis  to  Colonel  Tarleton.  The  guard  was  immediately  called  out,  the 
commander  of  which,  taking  me  in  charge,  carried  me  at  once  to  Tarleton's 
marque.  A  servant  informed  him  of  my  arrival,  and  returned  immediately 
with  the  answer  that  his  master  would  see  me  after  a  while,  and  that,  in 

*  Mrs.  fillet's  Women  of  the  Revolution. 


1781.]        THE     WAR      IN     THE     CAROLINAS.  83 

the  meanwhile,  I  was  to  await  his  pleasure  where  I  then  was.  The 
servant  was  a  grave  and  sedate  looking  Englishman,  between  fifty  and  sixty 
years  of  age,  and  informed  me  that  he  had  known  Colonel  Tarleton  from 
his  earliest  youth,  having  lived  for  many  years  in  the  family  of  his  father,  a 
worthy  clergyman,  at  whose  particular  request  he  had  followed  the  colonel 
to  this  country  with  the  view  that,  if  overtaken  by  disease  and  suffering  in 
his  headlong  career,  he  might  have  some  one  near  him  who  had  known 
him  ere  the  pranksome  mischief  of  the  boy  had  hardened  into  the  sterner 
vices  of  the  man.  i  He  was  always  a  wild  blade,  friend,'  said  the  old  man, 
'  and  many  a  heart-ache  has  he  given  us  all ;  but  he  '11  mend  in  time,  I 
hope.'  Just  then  my  attention  was  attracted  by  the  violent  plungings  of 
a  horse  which  two  stout  grooms,  one  on  each  side,  were  endeavoring  to 
lead  toward  the  spot  where  we  were  standing.  He  was  a  large  and  power 
ful  brute,  beautifully  formed,  and  black  as  a  crow,  with  an  eye  that  actually 
seemed  to  blaze  with  rage  at  the  restraint  put  upon  him.  His  progress 
was  one  continued  bound,  at  times  swinging  the  grooms  clear  from  the 
earth  as  lightly  as  though  they  were  but  tassels  hung  on  his  huge  Spanish 
bit,  so  that  with  difficulty  they  escaped  being  trampled  under  foot.  I  asked 
the  meaning  of  the  scene,  and  was  informed  that  the  horse  was  one  that 
Tarleton  had  heard  of  as  being  a  magnificent  animal,  but  one  altogether 
unmanageable  ;  and  so  delighted  was  he  with  the  description,  that  he  sent 
all  the  way  down  into  Moore  county,  where  his  owner  resided,  and  pur 
chased  him  at  the  extravagant  price  of  one  hundred  guineas;  and  that, 
moreover,  he  was  about  to  ride  him  that  morning.  '  Ride  him !'  said  I,  '  why, 
one  had  as  well  try  to  back  a  streak  of  lightning.  The  mad  brute  will  cer 
tainly  be  the  death  of  him.'  '  Never  fear  for  him,'  said  my  companion, '  never 
tear  for  him.  His  time  has  not  come  yet.'  By  this  time  the  horse  had 
been  brought  up  to  where  we  were ;  the  curtain  of  the  marque  was  pushed 
aside,  arid  my  attention  was  drawn  from  the  savage  stud  to  rivet  itself  upon 
his  dauntless  rider.  And  a  picture  of  a  man  he  was !  Rather  below  the 
middle  height,  and  with  a  face  almost  femininely  beautiful.  Tarleton  pos 
sessed  a  form  that  was  a  perfect  model  of  manly  strength  and  vigor. 
Without  a  particle  of  superfluous  flesh,  his  rounded  limbs  and  full  broad 
chest  seemed  molded  from  iron,  yet,  at  the  same  time,  displaying  all  the 
elasticity  which  usually  accompanies  elegance  of  proportion.  His  dress, 
strange  as  it  may  appear,  was  a  jacket  and  breeches  of  white  linen,  fitted 
to  his  form  with  the  utmost  exactness.  Boots  of  russet  leather  were  half 
way  up  the  leg,  the  broad  tops  of  which  were  turned  down,  the  heels  gar 
nished  with  spurs  of  an  immense  size  and  length  of  rowel.  On  his  head 
was  a  low-crowned  hat,  curiously  formed  from  the  snow-white  feathers  of 
the  swan,  and  in  his  hand  he  carried  a  heavy  scourge  with  shot  well 
twisted  into  its  knotted  lash.  After  looking  around  for  a  moment  or  two, 
as  though  to  command  the  attention  of  all,  he  advanced  to  the  side  of  the 


84  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1781. 

horse,  and,  disdaining  the  use  of  the  stirrup,  with  one  bound  threw  himself 
into  the  saddle,  at  the  same  time  calling  on  the  grooms  to  let  him  go.  For 
an  instant  the  animal  seemed  paralyzed ;  then,  with  a  perfect  yell  of  rage, 
bounded  into  the  air  like  a  stricken  deer. 

"  The  struggle  for  mastery  had  commenced — bound  succeeded  bound 
with  the  rapidity  of  thought ;  every  device  which  its  animal  instinct  could 
teach  was  resorted  to  by  the  maddened  brute  to  shake  off  its  unwelcome 
burden — but  in  vain.  Its  ruthless  rider  proved  irresistible,  and  clinging 
like  fate  itself,  plied  the  scourge  and  rowel  like  a  fiend.  The  punishment 
was  too  severe  to  be  long  withstood,  and  at  length,  after  a  succession  of 
frantic  efforts,  the  tortured  animal,  with  a  scream  of  agony,  leaped  forth 
upon  the  plain,  and  flew  across  it  with  the  speed  of  an  arrow.  The  ground 
upon  which  Tarleton  had  pitched  his  camp  was  an  almost  perfectly  level 
plain,  something  more  than  half  a  mile  in  circumference.  Around  this, 
after  getting  him  under  way,  he  continued  to  urge  his  furious  steed,  amid 
the  raptures  and  shouts  of  the  admiring  soldiery,  plying  the  whip  and  spur 
at  every  leap,  until  wearied  and  worn  down  with  its  prodigious  efforts,  the 
tired  creature  discontinued  all  exertion,  save  that  to  which  it  was  urged 
by  its  merciless  rider. 

"  At  length,  exhausted  from  the  conflict,  Tarleton  drew  up  before  his 
tent,  and  threw  himself  from  the  saddle.  The  horse  was  completely  sub 
dued,  and  at  the  word  of  command  followed  him  around  like  a  dog.  The 
victory  was  complete.  His  eye  of  fire  was  dim  and  lusterless,  drops  of 
agony  fell  from  his  drooping  front,  while  from  his  laboring  and  mangled 
sides  the  mingled  blood  and  foam  poured  in  a  thick  and  clotted  stream. 
Tarleton  himself  was  pale  as  death,  and  as  soon  as  he  was  satisfied  of  his 
success,  retired  and  threw  himself  on  his  couch.  In  a  short  time  I  was 
called  into  his  presence,  and  delivered  my  dispatches.  I  have  witnessed 
many  stirring  scenes,  both  during  the  Revolution  and  since,  but  I  never 
saw  one  half  so  exciting  as  the  strife  between  that  savage  man  and  savage 
horse." 

There  are  volumes  of  such  stories  as  these ;  but  these 
must  suffice.  How  often  must  the  boy  have  drunk  in  with 
greedy  ear  such  tales  ;  and  how  they  must  have  nourished  in 
him  those  feelings  which  are  akin  to  war  and  strife  !  I  won 
der  if  he  chanced  to  hear  that  at  Charleston,  in  the  early 
period  of  the  war,  cotton  bales  were  used  in  the  construction  of 
a  fort.*  I  wonder  if  he  heard  of  the  servants  of  the  British 
officers  thickening  their  masters'  soup  with  hair-powder,  in 

*  Ramsay's  Revolution  in  South  Carolina,  i.,  141. 


1781.]  FORTUNES     OF     THE     FAMILY.  85 

the  scarcity  of  flour  ;  of  Marion  splitting  saws  into  sword 
blades  ;  of  the  patriot  militia  going  to  battle  with  more  men 
than  muskets,  and  the  unarmed  ones  watching  the  strife,  till 
a  comrade  fell,  and  then  running  in  to  seize  his  weapon,  and 
to  use  it.  It  is  likely.  In  his  inflamed  imagination,  the 
mild  Cornwallis  figured  as  a  relentless  savage,  Tarleton  as  a 
devil  incarnate,  and  all  red-coated  sons  of  Britain  as  the  nat 
ural  enemies  of  man.  "  Oh,  if  I  were  a  man,  how  I  would 
sweep  down  the  British  with  my  grass  blade  !" 

Well,  the  time  had  now  come,  when  Andrew  and  his 
brother  began  to  play  men's  parts  in  the  drama.  Without 
enlisting  in  any  organized  corps,  they  joined  small  parties 
that  went  out  on  single  enterprises  of  retaliation,  mounted 
on  their  own  horses,  and  carrying  their  own  weapons.  Let 
us  see  what  befell  them  while  serving  thus. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE  FORTUNES  OF  THE   FAMILY. 

OF  the  adventures  of  our  young  trooper  there  is  but  one 
to  record  which  was  not  calamitous.  It  was  a  trifling  affair  j 
but  the  story  illustrates  the  time  and  the  boy. 

In  that  fierce,  Scotch-Indian  warfare,  the  absence  of  a 
father  from  home  was  often  a  better  protection  to  his  family 
than  his  presence,  because  his  presence  invited  attack.  The 
main  object  of  both  parties  was  to  kill  the  fighting  men,  and 
to  avenge  the  slaying  of  partisans.  The  house  of  the  quiet 
hero  Hicks,  for  example,  was  safe,  until  it  was  noised  about 
among  the  tories  that  Hicks  was  at  home.  And  thus  it  came 
to  pass,  that  when  a  whig  soldier  of  any  note  desired  to  spend 
a  night  with  his  family,  his  neighbors  were  accustomed  to 
turn  out,  and  serve  as  a  guard  to  his  house  while  he  slept. 
Behold  Robert  and  Andrew  Jackson,  with  six  others,  thus 


86  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1781. 

employed  one  night  in  the  spring  of  1781,  at  the  domicil  of  a 
neighbor,  Captain  Sands.  The  guard  on  this  occasion  was 
more  a  friendly  tribute  to  an  active  partisan  than  a  service 
considered  necessary  to  his  safety.  In  short,  the  night  was 
not  far  advanced,  before  the  whole  party  were  snugly  housed 
and  stretched  upon  the  floor,  all  sound  asleep,  except  one,  a 
British  deserter,  who  was  restless,  and  dosed  at  intervals. 

Danger  was  near.  A  band  of  tories,  bent  on  taking  the 
life  of  Captain  Sands,  approached  the  house  in  two  divisions  ; 
one  party  moving  toward  the  front  door,  the  other  toward  the 
back.  The  wakeful  soldier,  hearing  a  suspicious  noise,  rose, 
went  out  of  doors  to  learn  its  cause,  and  saw  the  foe  stealth 
ily  nearing  the  house.  He  ran  in  in  terror,  and  seizing  Andrew 
Jackson,  who  lay  next  the  door,  by  the  hair,  exclaimed, 

"  The  tories  are  upon  us  !" 

Andrew  sprang  up,  and  ran  out.  Seeing  a  body  of  men 
in  the  distance,  he  placed  the  end  of  his  gun  in  the  low  fork 
of  a  tree  near  the  door,  and  hailed  them.  No  reply.  He 
hailed  them  a  second  time.  No  reply.  They  quickened 
their  pace,  and  had  come  within  a  few  rods  of  the  door.  By 
this  time,  too,  the  guard  in  the  house  had  been  roused,  and 
were  gathered  in  a  group  behind  the  boy.  Andrew  discharged 
his  musket  ;  upon  which  the  tories  fired  a  volley,  which 
killed  the  hapless  deserter  who  had  given  the  alarm.  The 
other  party  of  tories,  who  were  approaching  the  house  from 
the  other  side,  hearing  this  discharge,  and  the  rush  of  bullets 
above  their  heads,  supposed  that  the  firing  proceeded  from  a 
party  that  had  issued  from  the  house.  They  now  fired  a  vol 
ley,  which  sent  a  shower  of  balls  whistling  about  the  heads 
of  their  friends  on  the  other  side.  Both  parties  hesitated, 
and  then  halted.  Andrew  having  thus,  by  his  single  dis 
charge,  puzzled  and  stopped  the  enemy,  retired  to  the  house, 
where  he  and  his  comrades  kept  up  a  brisk  fire  from  the  win 
dows.  One  of  the  guard  fell  mortally  wounded  by  his  side, 
and  another  received  a  wound  less  severe.  In  the  midst  of 
this  singular  contest,  a  bugle  was  heard,  some  distance  off, 
sounding  the  cavalry  charge  ;  whereupon  the  tories,  con- 


1781.]  FORTUNES     OF     THE     FAMILY  87 

eluding  that  they  had  come  upon  an  ambush  of  whigs,  and 
were  about  to  be  assailed  by  horse  and  foot,  fled  to  where 
they  had  left  their  horses,  mounted,  dashed  pell-mell  into  the 
woods,  and  were  seen  no  more.  It  appeared  afterwards,  that 
the  bugle-charge  was  sounded  by  a  neighbor,  who  judging 
from  the  noise  of  musketry  that  Captain  Sands  was  attacked, 
and  having  not  a  man  with  him  in  his  house,  gave  the  blast 
upon  the  trumpet,  thinking  that  even  a  trick  so  stale,  aided 
by  the  darkness  of  the  night,  might  have  some  effect  in 
alarming  the  assailants. 

The  next  time  the  Jackson  boys  smelt  powder,  they  were 
not  so  fortunate.  The  activity  and  zeal  of  the  Waxhaw 
whigs  coming  to  the  ears  of  Lord  Rawdon,  whom  Cornwallis 
had  left  in  command,  he  dispatched  a  small  body  of  dragoons 
to  aid  the  tories  of  that  infected  neighborhood.  The  Waxhaw 
people  hearing  of  the  approach  of  this  hostile  force,  resolved 
upon  resisting  it  in  open  fight,  and  named  the  Waxhaw 
meeting-house  as  the  rendezvous.  Forty  whigs  assembled 
on  the  appointed  day,  mounted  and  armed ;  and  among  them 
were  Kobert  and  Andrew  Jackson.  In  the  grove  about  the 
old  church,  these  forty  were  waiting  for  the  arrival — hourly 
expected — of  another  company  of  whigs  from  a  neighboring 
settlement.  The  British  officer  in  command  of  the  dragoons, 
apprised  of  the  rendezvous  by  a  tory  of  the  neighborhood, 
determined  to  surprise  the  patriot  party  before  the  two  com 
panies  had  united.  Before  coming  in  sight  of  the  church,  he 
placed  a  body  of  tories,  wearing  the  dress  of  the  country,  far 
in  advance  of  his  soldiers,  and  so  marched  upon  the  devoted 
band.  The  Waxhaw  party  saw  a  company  of  armed  men 
approaching,  but  concluding  them  to  be  their  expected 
friends,  made  no  preparations  for  defense.  Too  late  the  error 
was  discovered.  Eleven  of  the  forty  were  taken  prisoners, 
and  the  rest  sought  safety  in  flight,  fiercely  pursued  by  the 
dragoons.  The  brothers  were  separated.  Andrew  found  him 
self  galloping  for  life  and  liberty  by  the  side  of  his  cousin,  Lieu 
tenant  Thomas  Crawford ;  a  dragoon  close  behind  them,  and 
others  coming  rapidly  on.  They  tore  along  the  road  awhile, 


88  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1781. 

and  then  took  to  a  swampy  field,  where  they  came  soon  to  a 
wide  slough  of  water  and  mire,  into  which  they  plunged  their 
horses.  Andrew  floundered  across,  and  on  reaching  dry  land 
again,  looked  round  for  his  companion,  whose  horse  had  sunk 
into  the  mire  and  fallen.  He  saw  him  entangled,  and  trying 
vainly  to  ward  off  the  blows  of  his  pursuers  with  his  sword. 
Before  Andrew  could  turn  to  assist  him,  the  lieutenant  re 
ceived  a  severe  wound  in  the  head,  which  compelled  him  to 
give  up  the  contest  and  surrender.  The  youth  put  spurs  to 
his  horse  and  succeeded  in  eluding  pursuit.  Kobert,  too, 
escaped  unhurt,  and  in  the  course  of  the  day  the  brothers 
were  reunited,  and  took  refuge  in  a  thicket,  in  which  they 
passed  a  hungry  and  anxious  night. 

The  next  morning,  the  pangs  of  hunger  compelled  them 
to  leave  their  safe  retreat  and  go  in  quest  of  food.  The 
nearest  house  was  that  of  Lieutenant  Crawford.  Leaving 
their  horses  and  arms  in  the  thicket,  the  lads  crept  toward 
the  house,  which  they  reached  in  safety.  Meanwhile,  a  tory- 
traitor  of  the  neighborhood  had  scented  out  their  lurking- 
place,  found  their  horses  and  weapons,  and  set  a  party  of 
dragoons  upon  their  track.  Before  the  family  had  a  sus 
picion  of  danger,  the  house  was  surrounded,  the  doors  were 
secured,  and  the  boys  were  prisoners. 

A  scene  ensued  which  left  an  impression  upon  the  mind 
of  one  of  the  boys  which  time  never  effaced.  Regardless  of 
the  fact  that  the  house  was  occupied  by  the  defenseless  wife 
and  young  children  of  a  wounded  soldier,  the  dragoons,  bru 
talized  by  this  mean  partisan  warfare,  began  to  destroy,  with 
wild  riot  and  noise,  the  contents  of  the  house.  Crockery, 
glass,  and  furniture,  were  dashed  to  pieces ;  beds  emptied ; 
the  clothing  of  the  family  torn  to  rags ;  even  the  clothes  of 
the  infant  that  Mrs.  Crawford  carried  in  her  arms  were  not 
spared.  While  this  destruction  was  going  on,  the  officer  in 
command  of  the  party  ordered  Andrew  to  clean  his  high  jack 
boots,  which  were  well  splashed  and  crusted  with  mud.  The 
boy  replied,  not  angrily,  though  with  a  certain  firmness  and 
decision,  in  something  like  these  words : 


1781.]  FORTUNES     OF     THE     FAMILY.  89 

"  Sir,  I  am  a  prisoner  of  war,  and  claim  to  be  treated  as 
such." 

The  officer  glared  at  him  like  a  wild  beast,  and  aimed  a 
desperate  blow  at  the  boy's  head  with  his  sword.  Andrew 
broke  the  force  of  the  blow  with  his  left  hand,  and  thus  re 
ceived  two  wounds — one  deep  gash  on  his  head,  and  another 
on  his  hand,  the  marks  of  both  of  which  he  carried  to  his 
grave.  The  officer,  after  achieving  this  gallant  feat,  turned 
to  Kobert  Jackson,  and  ordered  him  to  clean  the  boots. 
Kobert  also  refused.  The  valiant  Briton  struck  the  young 
man  so  violent  a  sword-blow  upon  the  head,  as  to  prostrate 
and  disable  him. 

Those  who  were  intimately  acquainted  with  Andrew 
Jackson,  and  they  alone,  can  know  something  of  the  feelings 
of  the  youth  while  the  events  of  this  morning  were  tran 
spiring;  what  paroxysms  of  contemptuous  rage  shook  his 
slender  frame  when  he  saw  his  cousin's  wife  insulted,  her 
house  profaned,  his  brother  gashed  ;  himself  as  powerless  to 
avenge  as  to  protect.  "  I'll  warrant  Andy  thought  of  it  at 
New  Orleans"  said  an  aged  relative  of  all  the  parties  to  me 
in  an  old  farm-house  not  far  from  the  scene  of  this  morning's 
dastardly  work. 

To  horse.  Andrew  was  ordered  to  mount,  and  to  guide 
some  of  the  party  to  the  house  of  a  noted  whig  of  the  vicin 
ity,  named  Thompson.  Threatened  with  instant  death  if  he 
failed  to  guide  them  aright,  the  youth  submitted,  and  led  the 
party  in  the  right  direction.  A  timely  thought  enabled  him 
to  be  the  deliverer  of  his  neighbor,  instead  of  his  captor.  In 
stead  of  approaching  the  house  by  the  usual  road,  he  con 
ducted  the  party  by  a  circuitous  route,  which  brought  them 
in  sight  of  the  house  half  a  mile  before  they  reached  it.  An 
drew  well  knew  that  if  Thompson  was  at  home,  he  would  be 
sure  to  have  some  one  on  the  look  out,  and  a  horse  ready  for 
the  road.  On  coming  in  sight  of  the  house,  he  saw  Thomp 
son's  horse,  saddled  and  bridled,  standing  at  a  rack  in  the 
yard  ;  which  informed  him  both  that  the  master  was  there 
and  that  he  was  prepared  for  flight.  The  dragoons  dashed 


90  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1781. 

forward  to  seize  their  prey.  While  they  were  still  some  hun 
dreds  of  yards  from  the  house,  Andrew  had  the  keen  delight 
of  seeing  Thompson  burst  from  his  door,  run  to  his  horse, 
mount,  and  plunge  into  a  foaming  swollen  creek  that  rushed 
by  his  house.  He  gained  the  opposite  shore,  and  seeing  that 
the  dragoons  dared  not  attempt  the  stream,  gave  a  shout  of 
defiance,  and  galloped  into  the  woods. 

The  elation  caused  by  the  success  of  his  stratagem  was 
soon  swallowed  up  in  misery.  Andrew  and  Robert  Jackson, 
Lieutenant  Thomas  Crawford,  and  twenty  other  prisoners, 
all  the  victims  of  this  raid  of  the  dragoons  into  the  Wax- 
haws,  were  placed  on  horses  stolen  in  the  same  settlement, 
and  marched  toward  Camden,  South  Carolina,  a  great  British 
depot  at  the  time,  forty  miles  distant.  It  was  a  long  and 
agonizing  journey,  especially  to  the  wounded,  among  whom 
were  the  Jacksons  and  their  cousin.  Not  an  atom  of  food, 
nor  a  drop  of  water  was  allowed  them  on  the  way.  Such 
was  the  brutality  of  the  soldiers,  that  when  these  miserable 
lads  tried  to  scoop  up  a  little  water  from  the  streams  which 
they  forded,  to  appease  their  raging  thirst,  they  were  ordered 
to  desist.* 

At  Camden  their  situation  was  one  of  utter  wretchedness. 
Two  hundred  and  fifty  prisoners  in  a  contracted  enclosure 
drawn  around  the  jail  ;  no  beds  of  any  description  ;  no  med 
icine  ;  no  medical  attendance,  nor  means  of  dressing  the 
wounds  ;  their  only  food  a  scanty  supply  of  bad  bread. 
They  were  robbed  even  of  part  of  their  clothing,  besides  be 
ing  subject  to  the  taunts  and  threats  of  every  passing  tory. 
The  three  relatives,  it  is  said,  were  separated  as  soon  as  their 
relationship  was  discovered.  Miserable  among  the  miserable  ; 
gaunt,  yellow,  hungry  and  sick  ;  robbed  of  his  jacket  and 
shoes  ;  ignorant  of  his  brother's  fate  ;  chafing  with  sup 
pressed  fury,  Andrew  passed  now  some  of  the  most  wretched 
days  of  his  life.  Ere  long,  the  small-pox,  a  disease  unspeak 
ably  terrible  at  that  day,  more  terrible  than  cholera  or  plague 
has  ever  been,  broke  out  among  the  prisoners,  and  raged  un- 

*  Kendall's  Life  of  Jackson,  page  51. 


1781.]  FORTUNES     OF     THE     FAMILY.  91 

checked  by  medicine,  and  unalleviated  by  any  kind  of  attend 
ance  or  nursing.     The  sick  and  the  well,  the  dying  and  the 
dead ;  those  shuddering  at  the  first  symptoms,  and  those 
putrid  with  the  disease,  were  mingled  together  ;  and  all  but 
the  dead  were  equally  miserable. 

For  some  time  Andrew  escaped  the  contagion.  He  was 
reclining  one  day  in  the  sun  near  the  entrance  of  the  prison, 
when  the  officer  of  the  guard,  attracted,  as  it  seemed,  by  the 
youthf'ulness  of  his  appearance,  entered  into  conversation 
with  him.  The  lad  soon  began  to  speak  of  that  of  which  his 
heart  was  full — the  condition  of  the  prisoners  and  the  bad 
quality  of  their  food.  He  remonstrated  against  their  treat 
ment  with  such  energy  and  feeling  that  the  officer  seemed  to 
be  moved  and  shocked,  and,  what  was  far  more  important,  he 
was  induced  to  ferret  out  the  villainy  of  the  contractors  who 
had  been  robbing  the  prisoners  of  their  rations.  From  the 
day  of  Andrew's  remonstrance  the  condition  of  the  prisoners 
was  ameliorated  ;  they  were  supplied  with  meat  and  better 
bread,  and  were  otherwise  better  cared  for. 

What  a  thrill  of  joy  ran  through  the  prisoners'  quarters 
one  day  at  the  rumor  that  General  Greene  was  coming  to 
their  deliverance  !  He  came  with  a  brave  little  army  of 
twelve  hundred  men.  He  approached  within  a  mile  of  Cam- 
den  ;  but,  having  outstripped  his  artillery,  he  deemed  it  best 
to  encamp  upon  an  eminence  there,  and  wait  for  the  guns  to 
come  up  before  attacking  the  place.  To  this  conclusion  he 
was  the  more  inclined,  as  Lord  Rawdon's  force,  in  Camden, 
was  inferior  to  his  own.  What  excitement  among  the  pris 
oners  during  the  six  days  of  General  Greene's  halt  upon 
Hobkirk's  Hill !  On  the  arrival  of  General  Greene's  army, 
they  were  hurried  out  of  the  redoubt  about  the  jail,  which 
was  exposed  to  the  cannon  of  an  attacking  enemy  ;  but,  upon 
the  British  general  discovering  that  Greene  had  no  cannon, 
they  were  permitted  to"  return.  The  American  army  remain 
ing  inactive,  Lord  Rawdon  resolved,  inferior  as  his  force  was, 
to  attack  General  Greene's  camp  before  his  artillery  should 
arrive  ;  a  bold  design  and  boldly  executed.  On  the  24th  of 


92  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1781. 

April  the  prisoners  more  than  suspected,  from  the  movements 
of  the  troops  in  the  town  and  from  the  flying  whispers  which 
will  precede  a  battle,  that  Greene  was  to  be  attacked  the  very 
next  morning.  The  battle  would  decide  their  fate  as  well  as 
that  of  one  of  the  hostile  armies. 

The  enclosure  in  which  the  prisoners  were  confined  would 
have  commanded  a  perfect  view  of  General  Greene's  position 
but  for  a  board  fence  which  had  been  recently  erected  on  the 
summit  of  the  wall.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  24th,  Andrew 
looked  for  a  crevice  in  the  fence,  but  not  one  could  he  find. 
In  the  course  of  the  night,  however,  he  managed,  with  the 
aid  of  an  old  razor  blade  which  had  been  generously  bestowed 
upon  the  prisoners  as  a  meat  knife,  to  hack  out  a  knot  from 
the  fence.  The  morning  light  found  him  spying  out  the 
American  position  with  eager  eye. 

What  he  saw  that  morning  through  the  knot-hole  of  his 
prison  was  his  second  lesson  in  the  art  of  war.  An  impressive 
lesson  it  proved,  and  one  he  never  forgot.  There  was  the 
American  encampment  spread  out  in  full  view  before  him  at 
the  distance  of  a  mile.  General  Greene,  being  well  assured 
of  Rawdon's  weakness,  and  anticipating  nothing  so  little  as 
an  attack  from  a  man  whom  he  supposed  to  be  trembling 
for  his  own  safety,  neglected  precautions  against  surprise.  At 
ten  in  the  morning,  when  Kawdon  led  out  his  nine  hundred 
men  to  the  attack,  Andrew,  mad  with  vexation,  saw  Greene's 
men  scattered  over  the  hill,  cleaning  their  arms,  washing 
their  clothes  and  playing  games,  totally  unprepared  to  resist. 
Kawdon,  by  taking  a  circuitous  route,  was  enabled  to  break 
upon  Greene's  left  with  all  the  effect  of  a  surprise.  From 
his  knot-hole  the  excited  youth  saw  the  sudden  smoke  of 
musketry,  the  rush  of  the  Americans  for  their  arms,  the 
hasty  falling  in,  the  opening  of  Greene's  fire,  the  fine  dash  of 
American  horse  upon  Kawdon's  rear,  which  almost  turned 
the  tide  of  fortune  and  made  every  heart  in  the  prison  leap 
for  joy  as  Andrew  described  it  to  the  listening  throng  below 
him  ;  then  the  wild  flight  of  horses  running  riderless  about 
the  hill,  the  fire  slackening,  and,  alas  t  receding,  till  Raw- 


1781.]  FORTUNES     OF     THE     FAMILY.  93 

don's  army  swept  over  the  hill  and  vanished  on  the  other 
side,  Greene  in  full  retreat  before  him  ! 

The  prisoners  were  in  despair.  Andrew's  spirits  sank 
under  this  accumulation  of  miseries,  and  he  began  to  sicken 
with  the  first  symptoms  of  the  small-pox.  Robert  was  in  a 
condition  still  worse.  The  wound  in  his  head  had  never  been 
dressed,  and  had  not  healed.  He,  too,  reduced  as  he  was, 
began  to  shiver  and  burn  with  the  fever  that  announces  the 
dread  disease.  Another  week  of  prison  life  would  have  prob 
ably  consigned  both  these  boys  to  the  grave. 

But  they  had  a  friend  outside  the  prison — their  mother, 
who,  at  this  crisis  of  their  fate,  strove  with  the  might  of  love 
for  their  deliverance.  Learning  their  forlorn  condition,  this 
heroic  woman  went  to  Camden,  and  succeeded,  after  a  time, 
in  effecting  an  exchange  of  prisoners  between  a  Waxhaw  cap 
tain  and  the  British  general.  The  whig  captain  gave  up 
thirteen  soldiers,  whom  he  had  captured  in  the  rear  of  the 
British  army,  and  received  in  return  the  two  sons  of  Mrs. 
Jackson  and  five  of  her  neighbors.  When  the  little  family 
were  reunited  in  the  town  of  Camden,  the  mother  could  but 
gaze  upon  her  boys  with  astonishment  and  horror — so  worn 
and  wasted  were  they  with  hunger,  wounds  and  disease. 
Robert  could  not  stand  nor  even  sit  on  horseback  without 
support. 

The  mother,  however,  had  no  choice  but  to  get  them  home 
immediately.  Two  horses  were  procured.  One  she  rode  her 
self.  Robert  was  placed  upon  the  other,  and  held  in  his  seat 
by  the  returning  prisoners,  to  whom  Mrs.  Jackson  had  just 
given  liberty.  Behind  the  sad  procession,  poor  Andrew 
dragged  his  weak  and  weary  limbs,  bare-headed,  bare-footed, 
without  a  jacket ;  his  only  two  garments  torn  and  dirty. 
The  forty  miles  of  lonely  wilderness  that  lay  between  Cam 
den  and  Waxhaw  were  nearly  traversed,  and  the  fevered  lads 
were  expecting  in  two  hours  more  to  enjoy  the  bliss  of  repose, 
when  a  chilly,  drenching,  merciless  rain  set  in.  When  this 
occurred,  the  small-pox  had  reached  that  stage  of  develop 
ment,  when,  after  having  raged  within  the  system,  it  was 
VOL.  i. — 7. 


94  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1781. 

about  to  break  out  in  those  loathsome  sores  which  give  vent 
to  the  disease.  Balk  that  effort  of  nature  to  throw  off  the 
poison,  and  it  is  nearly  certain  to  strike  in  and  kill ;  and 
nothing  is  so  sure  to  do  this  as  a  cold  bath.  The  boys  reached 
home,  and  went  to  bed.  In  two  days  Kobert  Jackson  was  a 
corpse,  and  his  brother  Andrew  a  raving  maniac. 

A  mother's  nursing,  medical  skill,  and  a  constitution 
sound  at  the  core,  brought  the  youth  out  of  this  peril,  and 
set  him  upon  the  way  to  slow  recovery.  He  was  an  invalid 
for  several  months. 

In  the  summer  of  1781,  a  great  cry  of  anguish  and  de 
spair  came  up  to  Waxhaw  from  the  Charleston  prison  ships, 
wherein,  among  many  hundreds  of  other  prisoners,  were  con 
fined  some  of  the  sons  of  Mrs.  Jackson's  sisters,  and  other 
friends  and  neighbors  of  hers  from  the  Waxhaw  country. 
Mrs.  Jackson  had  seen  at  Camden  what  prisoners  of  war  may 
suffer,  when  officers  disdain  their  duty,  and  contractors  are 
scoundrels.  She  had  also  seen  what  a  little  vigor  and  tact 
can  effect  in  the  deliverance  of  prisoners.  Andrew  was  no 
sooner  quite  out  of  danger  than  his  brave  mother  resolved  to 
go  to  Charleston  (distant  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles),  and 
do  what  she  could  for  the  comfort  of  the  prisoners  there. 
The  tradition  of  the  neighborhood  now  is,  that  she  performed 
the  entire  journey  on  foot,  in  company  with  two  other  women 
of  like  mind  and  purpose.  It  is  more  probable,  however,  and 
so  thought  General  Jackson,  that  these  gallant  women  rode 
on  horseback,  carrying  with  them  a  precious  store  of  gifts  and 
rural  luxuries  and  medicines  for  the  solace  of  their  imprisoned 
relatives,  and  bearing  whole  hearts  full  of  tender  messages 
and  precious  news  from  home.  Protected,  because  unpro 
tected,  they  reached  Charleston  in  safety,  and  gained  admis 
sion  to  the  ships,  and  emptied  their  hearts  and  saddle-bags, 
and  brought  such  joy  to  the  haggard  prisoners  as  only  prison 
ers  know,  when  angel  women  from  home  visit  them. 

And  there  the  history  of  this  blessed  expedition  ends. 
This  only  is  further  known  of  it,  or  will  ever  be.  While 
stopping  at  the  house  of  a  relative,  William  Barton  by  name. 


1781.]  FORTUNES     OF      THE      FAMILY.  95 

who  lived  two  miles  and  a  half  from  Charleston,  Mrs.  Jack 
son  was  seized  with  the  ship  fever,  and,  after  a  short  illness, 
died,  and  was  buried  on  the  open  plain  near  by.  I  have  con 
versed  with  the  daughter  of  William  Barton,  who  is  now 
Mrs.  Thomas  Faulkner,  of  Waxhaw  ;  but  she  was  not  born 
when  Mrs.  Jackson  died  in  her  father's  house,  and  she  is 
able  to  add  nothing  to  our  knowledge  of  that  event.  One 
little  fact  she  has  heard  her  mother  mention,  which  shows 
the  careful  honesty  of  this  race.  The  clothes  of  Mrs.  Jack 
son,  a  sorry  bundle,  were  sent  back  from  Charleston  all  the 
way  to  her  sorrowing  son  at  Waxhaw. 

It  was  not  in  the  nature  of  Andrew  Jackson  not  to  mourn 
deeply  the  loss  of  such  a  mother  ;  and  as  he  lay  recovering 
by  imperceptible  degrees  from  his  illness,  he  had  leisure  to 
dwell  upon  her  virtues  and  his  own  unhappiness.  It  was 
always  a  grief  to  him  that  he  did  not  know  where  her  re 
mains  were  laid.  As  late  in  his  life  as  during  his  presidency, 
he  set  on  foot  some  inquiries  respecting  the  place  of  her 
burial,  with  the  design  of  having  her  sacred  dust  conveyed  to 
the  old  church-yard  at  Waxhaw,  where  he  wished  to  erect  a 
monument  in  honor  of  both  his  parents.  It  was  too  late. 
No  exact  information  could  then  be  obtained,  and  the  pro 
ject  was  given  up.  No  stone  marks  the  burial-place  either 
of  his  father,  mother,  or  brothers. 

And  so  Andrew,  before  reaching  his  fifteenth  birthday, 
was  an  orphan  ;  a  sick  and  sorrowful  orphan  ;  a  homeless 
and  dependent  orphan  ;  an  orphan  of  the  Revolution,  remem 
ber.  He  remembered  it. 


96  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1782. 

,».-       ..     :. 

C  HAPTER     VII. 

CHOICE     OF     A     PROFESSION. 

CORNWALLIS  surrendered  at  Yorktown  on  the  19th  of 
October,  1781.  Savannah  remained  in  the  enemy's  hands 
nine  months,  and  Charleston  fourteen  months,  after  that 
event  ;  but  the  war  in  effect  terminated  then,  North  and 
South.  The  Waxhaw  people  who  survived  returned  to  their 
homes,  and  resumed  the  avocations  which  the  war  had  inter 
rupted. 

The  first  event  of  any  importance  in  young  Jackson's  life, 
after  peace  was  restored  to  his  neighborhood,  was  a  quarrel. 
He  was  living  then  at  the  house  of  Major  Thomas  Crawford, 
where,  also,  one  Captain  Galbraith  had  his  quarters,  a  com 
missary  of  the  American  army.  Galbraith  having  taken  dire 
offense  at  Andrew  for  some  cause  unknown,  threatened  to 
chastise  him  ;  upon  which  the  lad  told  the  irate  officer,  that 
before  lifting  his  hand  to  execute  his  threat,  he  had  better 
prepare  for  eternity.  Galbraith  forbore  to  strike  ;  but  such 
ill  feeling  existed  between  the  two  that,  soon  after,  Andrew 
went  to  live  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Joseph  White,  a  relative  of 
Mrs.  Crawford,  and  a  resident  of  the  Waxhaw  region.  A 
son  of  this  gentleman  was  a  saddler.  For  six  months,  while 
Andrew  lived  with  the  family,  he  worked  in  the  saddler's 
shop  as  regularly  as  the  state  of  his  health  permitted.  A 
low  fever,  similar  to  the  fever  and  ague,  hung  about  him 
long  after  his  recovery  from  the  small-pox,  and  kept  him 
weak  and  dispirited.'-'5  His  short  experience  as  a  saddler's 
boy  seems  to  have  given  him  a  predilection  for  that  trade  ; 
at  least,  he  apprenticed  a  protege  to  it  forty  years  after. 

With  returning  health  returned  the  frolicsome  spirit  of 
the  youth,  which  now  began  to  seek  gratification  in  modes 
less  innocent  than  the  sportive  feats  of  his  school-boy  days 

*  Kendall's  Life  of  Jackson. 


1782.]  CHOICE     OF     A     PROFESSION.  97 

Several  Charleston  families,  of  wealth  and  social  eminence, 
were  living  in  the  neighborhood,  waiting  for  the  evacuation 
of  their  city.  With  the  young  men  of  these  families  Jackson 
became  acquainted,  and  led  a  life  with  them,  in  the  summer 
and  autumn  of  1782,  that  was  more  merry  than  wise.  He 
was  betrayed  by  their  example  and  his  own  pride  into  habits 
of  expense,  which  wasted  his  small  resources.  That  passion 
for  horses,  which  never  left  him,  began  to  show  itself.  He 
ran  races  and  rode  races,  gambled  a  little,  drank  a  little, 
fought  cocks  occasionally,  and  comported  himself  in  the  style 
usually  affected  by  dissipated  young  fools  of  that  day.  His 
aunts  and  uncles,  no  doubt,  shook  their  heads  and  predicted 
that  Andy  would  come  to  no  good  with  his  fine  friends  ;  and 
perhaps  they  said  as  much  to  the  youth,  and  said  it  too 
often,  or  in  the  wrong  way,  for  Andrew  seems  not  to  have 
warmly  loved  his  Carolina  relations.  He  struck  down  no 
roots  into  the  soil  of  his  birth,  and  never  revisited  it  nor  held 
much  communication  with  its  inhabitants  after  he  left  it. 
But  he  left  it  young,  and  vast  regions  of  wilderness  stretched 
between  him  and  his  native  State.  He  felt  that  he  had  no 
living  kindred,  and  said  so  at  a  time  when  he  had  many  cous 
ins  and  second  cousins  living  in  North  and  South  Carolina. 
I  fancy  there  was  little  sympathy  between  this  wild,  irasci 
ble,  aspiring  youth  and  his  staid,  orderly  elders.  He  was 
probably  regarded  as  the  scapegrace  of  the  family. 

In  December,  1782,  to  the  joy  and  exultation  of  all  the 
southern  country,  Charleston  was  evacuated,  and  its  scattered 
whig  families  were  free  to  return  to  their  homes.  Andrew, 
finding  the  country  dull  after  the  departure  of  his  gay  com 
panions,  suddenly  resolved  to  follow  them  to  the  city.  He 
mounted  his  horse,  a  fine  and  valuable  animal  that  he  had 
contrived  to  possess,  and  rode  to  Charleston  through  the 
wilderness.  There,  it  appears,  he  remained  long  enough  to 
expend  his  slender  stock  of  money  and  run  up  a  long  bill 
with  his  landlord.  He  was  saved  from  total  ruin  by  a  curious 
incident,  which  is  thus  related  by  one  who  heard  it  from  him 
self  :  "  He  had  strolled  one  evening  down  the  street,  and 


98  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1782. 

was  carried  into  a  place  where  some  persons  were  amusing 
themselves  at  a  game  of  dice,  and  much  betting  was  in  prog 
ress.  He  was  challenged  for  a  game  by  a  person  present,  by 
whom  a  proposal  was  made  to  stake  two  hundred  dollars 
against  a  fine  horse  on  which  Jackson  had  come  to  Charles 
ton.  After  some  deliberation,  he  accepted  the  challenge. 
Fortune  was  on  his  side  ;  the  wager  was  won  and  paid.  He 
forthwith  departed,  settled  his  bill  next  morning,  and  returned 
to  his  home.  "  My  calculation,"  said  he,  speaking  of  this 
little  incident,  "  was  that,  if  a  loser  in  the  game,  I  would 
give  the  landlord  my  saddle  and  bridle,  as  far  as  they  would 
go  toward  the  payment  of  his  bill,  ask  a  credit  for  the  balance, 
and  walk  away  from  the  city  ;  but  being  successful,  I  had 
new  spirits  infused  into  me,  left  the  table,  and  from  that 
moment  to  the  present  time  I  have  never  thrown  dice  for  a 
wager."* 

His  solitary  ride  home  through  the  woods,  after  this  nar 
row  escape,  gave  him  an  opportunity  for  reflection,  which  he 
improved.  He  came  to  the  conclusion  that  he  had  passed 
the  year  1782  very  foolishly,  and  that  if  he  meant  to  achieve, 
or  be  any  thing  in  this  world,  he  must  alter  his  way  of  life. 
In  some  degree  he  did  so  ;  not  that  he  eschewed  sport,  or  even 
gambling,  as  has  been  alleged.  He  was  a  keen  lover  of  sport 
for  many  and  many  a  year  after  this  Charleston  adventure  ; 
and  some  of  the  sports  then  in  vogue,  and  in  which  he  de 
lighted,  were  such  as  are  shocking  to  the  better  feelings  of 
this  generation.  Cock-fighting,  for  example.  It  is  totally 
out  of  our  power  to  understand  how  a  man  of  feelings  so  ten 
der  as  his,  who  could  not  hear  a  lamb  bleat  at  night  without 
getting  up  to  relieve  it,  could  take  delight  in  seeing  cocks 
mangle  and  kill  one  another.  Yet  so  it  was. 

Upon  the  return  of  the  young  man  to  the  home  of  his 
childhood,  he  evidently  took  hold  of  life  more  earnestly  than 
he  had  done  before.  He  made  some  attempts,  it  is  said,  to 
continue  his  studies.  Three  entirely  credible  informants  tes- 

*  Cabinet  and  Talisman  for  1829,  page  4. 


1782.]  CHOICE     OF     A     PROFESSION.  99 

tify  that  Andrew  Jackson  was  a  schoolmaster  at  this  period 
of  his  life.  One  of  these  informants  is  Mr.  John  Porter, 
aged  seventy-seven,  still  living  near  the  birth-place  of  Gen 
eral  Jackson  ;  aa  man  so  strictly  honest/'  says  General  S. 
H.  Walkup,  "  that  any  statement  he  may  make  will  be  cer 
tainly  correct."  Mr.  Porter  says  :  "  Andrew  Jackson  was 
frequently  at  my  father's  house,  and  taught  school  in  the 
neighborhood  ;  one  of  my  brothers  and  sisters  went  to  school 
to  him."*  The  long  suppression  of  a  fact  so  honorable  to  the 
young  man,  might  throw  some  doubt  upon  it,  if  the  works 
that  might  have  given  it  had  not  been  written  on  the  prin 
ciple  of  leaving  out  every  thing  of  particular  interest.  Nothing 
is  more  certain  than  that  part  of  the  small  cash  capital  upon 
which  Andrew  Jackson  started  in  his  career,  was  earned  amid 
the  hum  and  bustle  of  an  old-field  school.  It  is  the  more 


*  To  this  statement  Mr.  Porter  added  subsequently,  at  the  request  of  General 
Walkup,  the  following  special  certificate  : — 

SOUTH  CAROLINA,     } 
LANCASTER  DISTRICT.  ) 

I,  John  Porter,  do  hereby  certify  that  I  have  frequently  heard  my  father 
speak  of  General  Andrew  Jackson,  and  say  that  he  (Jackson)  taught  an  English 
school  soon  after  the  close  of  the  revolutionary  war,  perhaps  in  the  year  1783  or 
1784,  in  Lancaster  district,  and  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Waxhaw  M.  E. 
Church.  I  have  often  heard  my  brother  and  sister  speak  of  going  to  school  to 
him  then  and  there.  Subscribed  to  this  31st  day  of  May,  1859. 

JOHN  PORTER. 
Witness,  S.  R.  PORTER. 


General  Walkup  also  kindly  procured  and  forwarded  the  following : — 

SOUTH  CAROLINA, 
LANCASTER  DISTRICT. 

I,  Elizabeth  T.  White,  do  hereby  certify,  that  I  have  frequently  heard  my 
mother  speak  of  General  Andrew  Jackson  teaching  school,  and  of  her  going  to 
school  to  him  in  the  neighborhood  of  her  father's,  which  was  near  the  Waxhaw 
M.  E.  Church ;  and  that  he  taught  soon  after  the  close  of  the  revolutionary  war. 

E.  T.  WHITE. 
Sworn  and  subscribed  to  this  31st  day  of  May,  1859,  before  me, 

THOMAS  R.  MAGILL,  Notary  Public. 
Witness,  S.  R.  PORTER. 


100  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1782. 

certain,  as  the  uniform  tradition  of  the  Waxhaw  country  is, 
that  he  was  a  very  poor  young  man,  who  inherited  nothing 
from  his  father,  because  his  father  had  nothing  to  leave. 
The  old  people  there  scout  the  idea  of  "old  man  Andrew" 
having  owned  the  land  on  which  he  lived.  The  tradition  at 
Charlotte  is,  that  when  young  Andrew  attended  Queen's  Col 
lege,  on  the  hill  where  the  gold  grew,  he  often  passed  along 
down  the  street  to  school,  with  his  trowsers  too  ragged  to 
keep  his  shirt  from  flying  in  the  wind. 

The  fact  of  his  possessing  a  horse  worth  two  hundred  dol 
lars  seems,  at  first,  irreconcilable  with  these  traditions  of  his 
poverty.  At  the  North  it  would  he  so  ;  but  not  at  the 
South.  No  boy  in  the  rural  parts  of  the  South,  with  so  many 
uncles  around  him  as  young  Jackson  had,  could  get  far  on 
toward  manhood  without  receiving  the  gift  of  a  colt.  At  the 
South  a  man  without  a  horse  is  only  less  unfortunate  than  a 
man  without  legs.  Every  youth  of  respectable  connections 
has  one,  as  a  matter  of  course.  Thus  we  find  Hugh  Jack 
son,  though  without  property,  mounting  his  own  horse  to  go 
with  Colonel  Davie's  troop  to  the  war.  Kobert,  too,  was 
mounted,  as  well  as  Andrew,' as  soon  as  the  boys  were  old 
enough  to  serve  in  the  field.  The  South  may  be  defined  as 
the  region  ichere  every  thing  is  a  long  ivay  off;  where  you  go 
five  miles  to  see  your  next-door  neighbor,  seven  miles  to 
church,  fifteen  miles  to  a  store,  thirty  miles  to  court,  a  three 
days'  journey  to  market.  What  can  a  man  do  in  such  a 
country  with  no  legs  but  his  own  ? 

For  a  year  certainly,  and,  probably,  for  two  years,  after 
Andrew's  return  from  Charleston,  he  remained  in  the  Wax- 
haw  country,  employed  either  in  teaching  school,  or  in  some 
less  worthy  occupation.  Peace  was  formally  proclaimed  in 
April,  1783.  The  peace,  it  is  well  known,  produced  a  re 
markable  effect  upon  the  legal  profession.  By  excluding  the 
old  tory  barristers,  and  creating  many  new  causes  of  action, 
it  threw  into  the  hands  of  the  whig  lawyers  a  very  lucrative 
business.  At  the  same  time,  a  career  in  public  life  lay  open 
to  the  young  men  of  the  triumphant  party,  large  numbers  of 


1784.]  CHOICE     OF     A     PROFESSION.  101 

whom  the  peace  had  thrown  out  of  the  profession  of  arms. 
The  result  was,  that  young  men  of  spirit  in  all  parts  of  the 
country  were  looking  to  the  law  for  a  vocation,  and  the  old 
lawyers  had  plenty  of  new  students.  Some  time  between  the 
proclamation  of  peace  and  the  winter  of  1784-5,  Andrew 
Jackson  resolved  upon  studying  law.  In  that  winter  he 
gathered  together  his  earnings  and  whatever  property  he  may 
have  possessed,  mounted  his  horse  again,  and  set  his  face 
northward  in  quest  of  a  master  in  the  law  under  whom  to 
pursue  his  studies. 

He  rode  to  Salisbury,  North  Carolina,  a  distance  of 
seventy-five  miles  from  the  Waxhaws.  Either  because  he  met 
no  encouragement  at  that  place,  or  for  some  other  reason  be 
yond  our  guess,  he  then  journeyed  sixty  miles  westward,  to 
Morganton,  Burke  county,  North  Carolina,  where  lived  Col 
onel  Waightstill  Avery,  a  famous  lawyer  of  that  day,  and 
the  owner  of  the  best  law  library  in  that  part  of  the  country. 
He  applied  to  Colonel  Avery  for  instruction,  and  for  board 
in  his  house.  It  was  a  new  and  wild  region  of  country,  and 
the  house  of  Colonel  Avery,  like  all  others  in  the  vicinity, 
was  a  log-house  of  the  usual  limited  size.  He  was,  therefore, 
much  against  his  will,  compelled  to  decline  receiving  the  ap 
plicant  into  his  house  ;  and  as  there  was  no  other  boarding- 
place  to  be  found  in  the  neighborhood,  the  young  man  had 
no  choice  but  to  return  to  Salisbury.* 

At  Salisbury  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Mr.  Spruce 
McCay,  an  eminent  lawyer  at  that  time,  and,  in  later  days, 
a  judge  of  high  distinction,  who  is  still  remembered  with 
honor  in  North  Carolina. 

Andrew  was  not  quite  eighteen  years  of  age  when  he 
found  himself  installed  as  a  student  of  law.  He  thus  had 
the  start  of  most  of  the  distinguished  men  with  whom,  and 
against  whom,  he  afterwards  acted.  Henry  Clay  was  then  a 

*  These  facts  I  learn  from  Colonel  Isaac  T.  Avery,  of  Burke  county,  North 
Carolina,  a  son  of  the  Colonel  Avery  to  whom  Jackson  applied  on  this  occasion. 
The  present  Colonel  Avery  lives  on  or  near  the  site  of  the  log-house  wherein  his 
father  lived  when  young  Jackson  rode  up  to  his  gate  in  the  winter  of  1784. 


102  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1784. 

fatherless  boy  of  seven,  living  with  his  mother  in  the  Slashes 
of  Hanover  county,  Virginia.  Daniel  Webster  was  toddling 
about  his  father's  farm  in  New  Hampshire,  a  sickly  child  of 
four.  Calhoun  was  an  infant  not  two  years  old  at  his  father's 
farm-house  in  South  Carolina.  John  Quincy  Adams  was  a 
young  man  of  seventeen,  about  returning  home  from  Europe 
to  enter  Harvard  College/  Martin  Van  Buren,  a  child  two 
years  old,  might  have  been  seen,  on  fine  days,  playing  on  the 
steps  of  his  father's  tavern  in  Kinderhook.  Crawford — once 
so  famous,  now  reduced  to  twelve  lines  in  a  biographical  dic 
tionary — was  a  Georgia  school-boy  of  twelve.  Aaron  Bun- 
was  just  getting  into  full  practice  as  a  New  York  lawyer, 
amiable,  happy,  fortunate,  the  future  all  bright  before  him. 
Benton,  Biddle,  Taney,  Cass,  Buchanan,  Blair,  Kendall, 
Lewis,  Woodbury,  Eaton,  Duane  and  the  rest,  were  not 
born. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE     LAW     STUDENT. 

SALISBURY,  the  capital  of  Rowan  county,  is  a  pleasant 
old  town  in  the  midst  of  that  undulating,  red-clayed  region 
of  North  Carolina,  the  products  of  which  are  wheat,  cotton, 
turpentine  and  gold,  as  well  as  the  worst  roads  and  the  most 
obliging  people  in  the  world.  It  was  an  old  town,  for  Amer 
ica,  when  the  Revolution  began.  Secluded  from  the  com 
mercial  world,  dependent  for  its  increase  and  wealth  upon 
the  adjacent  country,  it  has  only  grown  to  be  a  place  of  eight 
hundred  inhabitants  in  a  hundred  years.  The  recent  rail 
road  has  given  an  impulse  to  the  town  which  will  soon 
change  its  character.  At  present  it  can  not  be  essentially 
different  from  what  it  was  in  young  Jackson's  day.  Two 
straight,  broad,  shady  streets  crossing  each  other  at  right 


1785.]  THE     LAW     STUDENT.  103 

angles  ;  other  and  narrower  streets  running  parallel  with 
these ;  a  little  church  or  two  ;  a  newspaper ;  an  academy  ; 
two  ancient,  spacious  taverns,  more  like  hamlets  than  houses ; 
a  few  prosperous-looking  stores  ;  a  score  of  comfortable  villa- 
like  houses,  and  a  hundred  other  tenements  in  various  stages 
of  that  dilapidation  which  is  so  common  in  the  southern 
towns.  The  public  wells,  in  the  middle  of  the  streets,  have 
not  yet  been  provided  with  pumps,  but  exhibit  the  sheds, 
wheels  and  buckets  of  generations  past,  and  there  is  one, 
near  the  tavern  where  Jackson  used  to  live,  so  extremely 
ancient  in  appearance  that  he  may  have  stopped  at  it  on  his 
way  home  from  "  the  office"  to  quench  his  thirst. 

Agreeable  and  inviting  are  the  red,  well-shaded  streets 
of  Salisbury,  except  when  long  rains  have  softened  the  clay, 
and  heavy  wagons  have  cut  deep  into  it.  Then  they  are  by 
no  means  inviting.  Then  the  task  of  getting  across  the 
streets  is  one  from  which  the  boldest  man  in  the  tightest 
boots  might  shrink.  Then  the  omnibus,  which  conveys  the 
single  arriving  traveler  from  the  depot  to  the  tavern,  strains 
to  the  uttermost  the  powers  of  four  horses,  two  negroes,  and 
all  benevolent  by-standers,  while  the  mud-crusted  vehicle 
rocks  and  plunges  like  a  Cape  Cod  fishing  smack  riding  out  a 
gale  off  Newfoundland,  and  the  lone  biographer  within  is 
hurled  hither  and  thither,  and  clutches  at  his  carpet-bag  con 
vulsively,  and  bites  his  tongue,  and  gasps  for  breath  and  calls 
on  the  gods  for  deliverance. 

In  one  of  the  back  streets  of  this  old  town,  on  the  lawn 
in  front  of  one  of  its  largest  and  handsomest  mansions,  close 
to  the  street  and  to  the  left  of  the  gate,  stands  a  little  box 
of  a  house  fifteen  feet  by  sixteen,  and  one  story  high.  It  is 
built  of  shingles,  several  of  which  have  decayed  and  fallen 
off.  It  is  too  small  for  a  wood  shed  or  a  corn  crib,  and  is  in 
the  wrong  place  for  a  hen  house  or  a  negro  cabin  ;  so  that,  if 
a  stranger's  eye  should  chance  to  be  arrested  by  so  insignifi 
cant  an  object,  he  would  be  puzzled  to  decide  its  purpose.  If 
he  should  push  open  the  door,  he  would  be  still  more  at  a 
loss.  The  inside  walls  are  ceiled.  There  are  remains  of  old 


104  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1785. 

wainscoting  on  one  side.  Some  stout,  dark-green  shelv 
ing  remains.  The  floor  is  littered  and  heaped  high,  and  the 
fire-place  is  filled,  and  the  shelves  covered  with  old  moldy 
books,  pamphlets,  Congressional  documents  (full  of  Jackson), 
speeches  franked  by  the  authors  thereof,  old  letters  and  law 
papers,  Philadelphia  magazines  of  forty  years  ago,  odd  vol 
umes  of  poetry,  and  other  relics  of  a  busy,  cultivated  life  long 
past. 

This  little  decaying  house  of  shingles  was  the  law-office 
of  Spruce  McCay,  when  Andrew  Jackson  studied  law  under 
him  at  Salisbury,  in  1785  and  1786.  The  mansion  behind  it 
stands  on  the  site  of  the  house  in  which  Mr.  McCay  lived  at 
the  time,  and  the  property  is  still  owned  and  occupied  by  a 
near  connection  of  his,  who  has  preserved  the  old  office  from 
regard  to  Jiis  memory.  In  that  office,  along  with  two  fellow- 
students,  McNairy  and  Crawford,  Andrew  Jackson  studied 
law,  copied  papers,  and  did  whatever  else  fell  to  the  lot  of 
law  students  at  that  day,  for  nearly  two  years.  In  one  of 
the  main  streets  of  the  town,  a  few  yards  from  the  office, 
still  stands  the  Kowan  House,  the  tavern  in  which  the  three 
students  boarded  and  caroused — a  rambling  old  place,  com 
posed  of  many  buildings,  after  the  southern  fashion,  with  vast 
fire-places,  high  mantels,  and  curious,  low,  unceiled  rooms. 
The  landlord  shows  a  little  apartment  which  young  Jack 
son  is  said  to  have  occupied ;  and  it  may  have  been  that  one, 
as  well  as  another.  But  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  huge  and 
lofty  fire-place  in  the  office  of  the  hotel,  is  the  fire-place 
round  which  these  three  merry  young  blades  often  quaffed 
their  landlord's  punch,  and  tossed  up  to  decide  who  should 
pay  for  it. 

Salisbury  teems  with  traditions  respecting  the  residence 
there  of  Andrew  Jackson  as  a  student  of  law.  Their  general 
tenor  may  be  expressed  in  the  language  of  the  first  old  resi 
dent  of  the  town,  to  whom  I  applied  for  information :  "  An 
drew  Jackson  was  the  most  roaring,  rollicking,  game-cocking, 
horse-racing,  card-playing,  mischievous  fellow,  that  ever  lived 
in  Salisbury."  Add  to  this  such  expressions  as  these :  "  He 


1785.]  THE     LAW     STUDENT.  105 

did  not  trouble  the  law-books  much ;"  "  he  was  more  in  the 
stable  than  in  the  office ;"  "  he  was  the  head  of  all  the  row 
dies  hereabouts."  That  is  the  substance  of  what  the  Salis 
bury  of  1859  has  to  say  of  the  Andrew  Jackson  of  1785. 

Nothing  is  more  likely  than  that  he  was  a  roaring,  rol 
licking  fellow,  overflowing  with  life  and  spirits,  and  rejoicing 
to  engage  in  all  the  fun  that  was  going ;  but  I  do  not  believe 
that  he  neglected  his  duties  at  the  office  to  the  extent  to 
which  Salisbury  says  he  did.  There  are  good  reasons  for 
doubting  it.  At  no  part  of  Jackson's  career,  when  we  can 
get  a  look  at  him  through  a  pair  of  trustworthy  eyes,  do  we 
find  him  trifling  with  life.  We  find  him  often  wrong,  but 
always  earnest,  He  never  so  much  as  raised  a  field  of  cotton 
which  he  did  not  have  done  in  the  best  manner  known  to 
him.  It  was  not  in  the  nature  of  this  young  man  to  take  a 
great  deal  of  trouble  to  get  a  chance  to  study  law,  and  then 
entirely  to  throw  away  that  chance.  Of  course  he  never  be 
came,  in  any  proper  sense  of  the  word,  a  lawyer  ;  but  that 
he  was  not  diligent  and  eager  in  picking  up  the  little  legal 
knowledge  necessary  for  practice  at  that  day,  will  become  less 
credible  to  the  reader  the  more  he  knows  of  him.  Once,  in 
the  White  House,  forty-five  years  after  this  period,  when 
some  one  from  Salisbury  reminded  him  of  his  residence  in 
that  town,  he  said,  with  a  smile,  and  a  look  of  retrospection 
on  his  aged  face,  "  Yes,  I  lived  at  old  Salisbury.  I  was  but 
a  raw  lad  then,  but  I  did  my  best." 

There  is  now  in  Salisbury  but  one  person  who  was  a  resi 
dent  of  the  place  when  Jackson  was  a  student  of  law,  and 
that  is  Aunt  Judy,  an  aged  and  beloved  servant  of  the  family 
who  live  on  the  site  of  the  former  residence  of  Judge  McCay. 
Aunt  Judy,  at  that  time,  was  a  girl  about  twelve  years  old, 
and  belonged  to  the  landlord  of  the  Rowan  House,  where  she 
waited  at  table,  and  assisted  in  the  general  work  of  the  house. 
She  remembers  the  three  Inseparables  at  the  tavern,  Jack 
son,  Crawford  and  McNairy.  Jackson,  she  says,  was  a  fair, 
clear-complexioned  young  man,  with  long  sandy  hair — "  one 
of  the  genteel  young  men  of  the  place."  He  owned  horses. 


.106  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1785. 

she  thinks  ;  certainly  he  was  much  occupied  with  horses, 
and  was  often  away  on  parties  of  pleasure.  He  was  very  fond 
of  the  ladies,  quite  a  beau  in  the  town,  and  a  very  gay,  lively 
fellow,  says  Aunt  Judy.  She  remembers  just  one  trifling  inci 
dent  of  those  merry  times.  Jackson  and  his  two  friends  came 
home  from  hunting  one  day,  and  left  their  guns  in  Jackson's 
room,  which  opened  upon  the  street.  While  the  lads  were 
gone  to  dinner,  she  was  sent  to  put  Jackson's  room  in  order ; 
and  while  there,  took  up  one  of  the  guns,  and  began  to 
"  fool  with  it."  It  went  off  in  her  hands,  and  threw  a  shower 
of  buck-shot  about  the  room.  She  heard  the  thunder  of  the 
boarders  rushing  to  see  what  was  the  matter,  but  waited  not 
to  explain.  She  dropped  the  gun,  ran  out  of  the  room,  and 
concealed  herself  till  the  flurry  was  over.  That  is  all  Aunt 
Judy  can  remember  clearly.  She  thinks  she  used  to  hear 
that  all  three  of  the  students  went  away  from  Salisbury,  un 
able  to  pay  their  bill  at  the  tavern.  She  has  also  a  dim 
recollection  of  once  handing  young  Jackson  a  glass  of  water 
at  dinner  ;  but  she  never  spoke  to  him,  nor  he  to  her. 

Among  the  most  respectable  ladies  in  Salisbury,  are  the 

Misses ,  whose  ancestors  were  old  residents  of  the  town 

when  Lord  Cornwallis  had  his  quarters  near  their  father's 
house.  Their  parents,  aunts  and  uncles  were  living  in  the 
town  when  Jackson  lived  there.  One  of  their  uncles,  George 
Dunn  by  name,  was  in  Jackson's  own  roystering  set,  and 
afterwards  went  with  him  to  Tennessee,  and  lived  long  in  his 
family.  These  ladies,  therefore,  are  well  informed  respecting 
the  life  of  Jackson  in  their  native  town  ;  and  the  more  so,  as 
their  mother  was  much  in  the  habit  of  talking  of  him  in  their 
hearing  after  he  became  famous.  They  fully  confirm  the 
current  tradition  of  the  town  with  regard  to  the  young  stud 
ent's  sportive  habits.  He  played  cards,  fought  cocks,  ran 
horses,  threw  the  "long  bullet"  (cannon  ball,  slung  in  a 
strap,  and  thrown  as  a  trial  of  strength),  carried  off  gates, 
moved  out-houses  to  remote  fields,  and  occasionally  indulged 
in  a  downright  drunken  debauch.  But  he  was  not  licentious 
nor  particularly  quarrelsome. 


1785.]  THE      LAW     STUDENT.  107 

Two  or  three  incidents  are  remembered  by  the  Misses. 
,  as  related  by  their  mother  and  others. 

Foot-races  were  much  in  vogue  at  that  time — a  sport  in 
which  the  long-limbed  Jackson  was  formed  to  excel.  Among 
the  runners  was  one  Hugh  Montgomery,  a  man  of  some  note 
in  revolutionary  annals,  who  was  as  remarkable  for  strength 
and  bulk  as  Jackson  was  for  agility.  To  equalize  the  two  in 
a  foot-race,  Montgomery  once  proposed  to  run  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  on  these  conditions  :  Montgomery  to  carry  a  man  on  his 
back,  Jackson  to  give  Montgomery  a  start  of  half  the  distance. 
Jackson  accepted  the  challenge,  and  the  absurd  race  was  run 
amid  the  frantic  laughter  of  half  the  town  ;  Jackson  winning 
by  two  or  three  yards.  All  came  into  the  winning-post  in 
good  condition,  except  the  man  whom  Montgomery  had  car 
ried.  In  his  eagerness  to  win,  Montgomery  had  clutched  and 
shaken  him  with  such  violence,  that  the  man  was  more  dam 
aged  and  breathless  than  either  of  the  two  competitors. 

One  can  not  be  long  in  Salisbury  and  talk  of  Jackson, 
without  hearing  a  horrible  story  of  his  bringing  his  mistress 
to  a  Christmas  ball,  to  the  scandal  and  disgust  of  all  the 
ladies  present,  who  left  the  ball-room  in  a  body,  and  made 
Salisbury  so  uncomfortable  a  place  for  the  offender,  that  he 
left  soon  after,  and  completed  his  studies  in  another  town. 
The  mother  of  the  ladies  just  referred  to  was  present  at  the 
ball  where  the  events  occurred  which  gave  rise  to  this  story, 
and  related  them  many  a  time  to  her  daughters.  There  was 
a  dancing  school  then  in  Salisbury,  which,  of  course,  the  gay 
Jackson  could  not  fail  to  attend.  The  dancing  school  re 
solved  to  give  a  Christmas  ball,  and  Andrew  Jackson  was 
appointed  to  serve  as  one  of  the  managers  thereof.  There 
were  living  at  that  time  in  Salisbury  two  women  of  ill- 
repute,  a  mother  and  daughter,  Molly  and  Rachel  Wood — 
women  notoriously  dissolute — a  by- word  in  the  county  of 
Kowan.  Jackson,  who  was  excessively  fond  of  a  practical 
joke,  sent  these  two  women  tickets  of  admission  to  the  ball, 
"  to  see  what  would  come  of  it,"  as  he  said.  On  the  evening 
of  the  ball,  lo !  the  women  presented  themselves,  flaunting 


108  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1786. 

in  all  the  colors  of  the  rainbow.  Some  confusion  ensued. 
The  dancing  was  suspended.  The  ladies  withdrew  to  one 
side  of  the  room,  half  giggling,  half  offended.  Molly  and 
Kachel  were  soon  led  out,  and  the  ball  went  on  as  before. 
In  the  course  of  the  evening,  when  it  came  out  that  Jackson 
had  sent  them  invitations,  the  ladies  took  him  to  task ;  upon 
which,  he  humbly  apologized,  declaring  that  it  was  merely  a 
piece  of  fun,  and  that  he  scarcely  supposed  the  women  would 
have  the  face  to  make  their  appearance ;  and  if  they  did,  he 
thought  the  ladies  would  take  it  as  a  joke.  The  ladies  for 
gave  him  more  easily  than  some  modern  readers  of  the  story 
will,  who  will  judge  this  tremendous  joke  by  the  standard  of 
the  decorous  year  of  our  Lord  in  which  they  have  the  happi 
ness  to  live.  It  certainly  was  carrying  a  joke  very  far,  and 
if  the  young  ladies  had  sent  him  to  Coventry  for  it,  it  would 
have  served  him  right. 

One  other  Salisbury  story,  from  the  same  most  trust 
worthy  source:  once  upon  a  time,  the  three  law-students 
and  their  friends  celebrated  some  event,  now  forgotten,  by  a 
banquet  at  the  tavern.  The  evening  passed  off  most  hilari 
ously.  Toward  midnight,  it  was  agreed  that  glasses  and  de 
canters  which  had  witnessed  and  promoted  the  happiness  of 
such  an  evening,  ought  never  to  be  profaned  to  any  baser  use. 
They  were  smashed  accordingly.  And  if  the  glasses,  why  not 
the  table  ?  The  table  was  broken  to  splinters.  Then  the 
chairs  were  destroyed,  and  every  other  article  of  furniture. 
There  was  a  bed  in  the  room,  and  the  destroying  spirit  being 
still  unsatiated,  the  clothes  and  curtains  were  seized  and  torn 
into  ribbons.  Lastly,  the  combustible  part  of  the  fragments 
were  heaped  upon  the  fire  and  consumed.  Wild  doings 
these.  Most  young  men  have  taken  part  in  some  such  mad 
ness  once ;  only,  it  is  not  generally  mentioned  in  their  biog 
raphies. 

Forty  years  after*  these  events,  it  came  to  the  ears  of  old 

Mrs. ,  the  mother  of  the  ladies  before  alluded  to,  that 

Andrew  Jackson  was  talked  of  for  the  presidency.  She  was 
accustomed  to  relieve  her  mind  on  the  subject  by  words  like 


1786.]  THE     LAW     STUDENT.  109 

these :  "  What !  Jackson  up  for  President  ?  Jackson  ? 
Andrew  Jackson  ?  The  Jackson  that  used  to  live  in  Salis 
bury  ?  Why,  when  he  was  here,  he  was  such  a  rake  that 
iny  husband  would  not  bring  him  into  the  house !  It  is 
true,  he  might  have  taken  him  out  to  the  stable  to  weigh 
horses  for  a  race,  and  might  drink  a  glass  of  whiskey  with  him 
there.  Well,  if  Andrew  Jackson  can  be  President,  anybody 
can !" 

A  leaf  of  the  Rowan  House  book,  on  which  the  landlord 
kept  his  account  with  Jackson,  is  said  to  be  still  in  existence, 
but  not  visible  to  mortal  eye.  Those  who  profess  to  have 
seen  the  leaf,  describe  it  to  have  contained  three  kinds  of 
entries :  first,  the  regular  charges  for  board  ;  secondly, 
charges  for  pints,  quarts  and  gallons  of  whiskey  ;  thirdly, 
an  account,  per  contra,  in  which  the  landlord  acknowledges 
his  indebtedness  to  Jackson  for  certain  sums  won  by  the  lat 
ter  at  cards,  or  by  betting  upon  races. 

But  enough  of  this.  From  these  traditions  and  stories 
we  learn  merely  that,  when  Jackson  studied  law  at  Salis 
bury,  he  was  exceedingly  fond  of  the  sports  of  the  time,  and 
indulged  in  them,  perhaps,  to  excess.  Salisbury,  at  that 
period,  was  noted  for  the  gayety  of  its  inhabitants,  and  con 
tinued  to  be  until  about  thirty  years  ago.  The  old  race 
course,  upon  which  young  Jackson  so  often  ran  his  horses  and 
ran  himself,  where  he  beat  the  huge  Hugh  Montgomery 
with  a  man  on  his  back,  and  where  he  enjoyed  the  happiest 
days  of  the  happiest  part  of  his  youth,  is  now  grown  over  with 
wood  and  almost  forgotten.  The  young  men  lounge  on  the 
street  corners,  silently  consuming  their  energies  with  their 
tobacco,  waiting  for  the  time  to  come  when  the  honest  old 
games  shall  return  freed  from  the  vices  which  drove  them 

o 

into  disgraceful  exile.  The  good  people  of  Salisbury  think 
their  town  is  more  moral  now  than  it  was  in  young  Jackson's 
day.  It  is  certainly  more  quiet. 

Our  student  completed  his  preparation  for  the  bar  in  the 
office  of  Colonel  John  Stokes,  a  brave  soldier  of  the  Revolu 
tion,  and  afterward  a  lawyer  of  high  repute,  from  whom 

VOL.  I. — 8. 


110  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1786. 

Stokes  county,  North  Carolina,  took  its  name.  Colonel 
Stokes  was  one  of  those  who  fell,  covered  with  wounds,  at 
the  Waxhaw  massacre  in  1780,  and  may  have  been  nursed  in 
the  old  meeting-house  by  Mrs.  Jackson  and  her  sons. 

Before  the  spring  of  1787,  about  two  years  after  beginning 
the  study  of  the  law,  Andrew  Jackson  was  licensed  to  prac 
tice  in  the  courts  of  North  Carolina. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

JACKSON     AT     TWENTY. 

OUR  young  friend  was  twenty  years  of  age  when  he  com 
pleted  the  preliminary  part  of  his  education  at  Salisbury. 
Before  sending  him  forth  to  try  conclusions  with  the  world, 
we  will  take  the  liberty  of  detaining  him  a  moment  here  on 
the  threshold  while  we  survey  his  person  and  equipment.  It 
is,  indeed,  necessary  to  state  briefly  what  kind  of  young  man 
young  Jackson  was,  in  order  to  render  credible  much  that  is 
soon  to  be  related,  as  well  as  to  correct  the  impressions  which 
the  wild  ways  of  his  youth  may  have  made  upon  the  reader's 
mind.  The  occasional  audacities  and  irregularities  of  a  young 
man  like  this  were  likely  to  be  remembered  and  exaggerated. 

He  had  grown  to  be  a  tall  fellow.  He  stood  six  feet  and 
an  inch  in  his  stockings.  He  was  remarkably  slender  for  that 
robust  age  of  the  world,  but  he  was  also  remarkably  erect ; 
so  that  his  form  had  the  effect  of  symmetry  without  being 
symmetrical.  His  movements  and  carriage  were  singularly 
graceful  and  dignified.  In  the  accomplishments  of  his  day 
and  sphere  he  excelled  the  young  men  of  his  own  circle,  and 
was  regarded  by  them  as  their  chief  and  model.  He  was  an 
exquisite  horseman,  as  all  will  agree  who  ever  saw  him  on 
horseback.  Jefferson  tells  us  that  General  Washington  was 
the  best  horseman  of  his  time,  but  he  could  scarcely  have 
been  a  more  graceful  or  a  more  daring  rider  than  Jackson. 


1787.J  JACKSON     AT     TWENTY.  Ill 

Young  Jackson  loved  a  horse.  From  early  boyhood  to 
extreme  old  age  he  was  the  master  and  friend  of  horses.  He 
was  one  of  those  who  must  own  a  horse,  if  they  do  not  a 
house,  an  acre  or  a  coat.  Horses  may  be  expected  to  play  a 
leading  part  in  the  career  of  this  tall  young  barrister. 

Into  the  secrets  of  forest  and  frontier  life  Jackson  was 
early  initiated.  He  was  used  to  camping  out,  and  knew  how 
to  make  it  the  most  luxurious  mode  of  passing  a  night  known 
to  man.  He  was  a  capital  shot,  and  became  a  better  dne  by 
and  by.  "  George,"  his  favorite  servant  in  after  years,  used 
to  point  out  the  tree  in  which  he  had  often  seen  his  master 
put  two  successive  balls  into  the  same  hole.  His  bodily 
activity,  as  we  have  seen,  was  unusual.  He  was  a  young 
man  of  a  quick,  brisk,  springy  step,  with  not  a  lazy  bone  in 
his  body  ;  and  though  his  constitution  was  not  robust,  it  was 
tough  and  enduring  beyond  that  of  any  man  of  whom  history 
gives  account. 

He  was  far  from  handsome.  His  face  was  long,  thin  and 
fair  ;  his  forehead  high  and  somewhat  narrow  ;  his  hair,  red 
dish-sandy  in  color,  was  exceedingly  abundant,  and  fell  down 
low  over  his  forehead.  The  bristling  hair  of  the  ordinary 
portraits  belongs  to  the  latter  half  of  his  life.  There  was  but 
one  feature  of  his  face  that  was  not  common-place — his  eyes, 
which  were  of  a  deep  blue,  and  capable  of  blazing  with  great 
expression  when  he  was  roused.  Yet,  as  his  form  seemed 
fine  without  being  so,  so  his  face,  owing  to  the  quick,  direct 
glance  of  the  man,  and  his  look  of  eager  intelligence,  pro 
duced  on  others  more  than  the  effect  of  beauty.  To  hear  the 
old  people  of  Tennessee,  and,  particularly,  the  ladies,  talk  of 
him,  you  would  think  he  must  have  been  an  Apollo  in  form 
and  feature. 

The  truth  is,  this  young  man  was  gifted  with  that  mys 
terious,  omnipotent  something,  which  we  call  A  PRESENCE. 
He  was  one  of  those  who  convey  to  strangers  the  impression 
that  they  are  "  somebody  ;"  who  naturally,  and  without 
thinking  of  it,  take  the  lead;  who  are  invited  or  permitted  to 
take  it,  as  a  matter  of  course.  It  was  said  of  him,  that  if  he 


112  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1787. 

should  join  a  party  of  travelers  in  the  wilderness,  and  re 
main  with  them  an  hour,  and  the  party  should  then  be 
attacked  by  Indians,  he  would  instinctively  take  the  com 
mand,  and  the  company  would,  as  instinctively,  look  to  him 
for  orders. 

He  was  wholly  formed  by  nature  for  an  active  career. 
The  back  of  his  head,  where  the  propelling  powers  are  said 
to  have  their  seat,  was  very  massive  ;  perhaps,  disproportion 
ately  so  to  the  quantity  of  man  to  be  propelled.  A  phrenol 
ogist,  who  had  marked  the  smalliiess  of  his  reflective  faculty, 
along  with  such  tremendous  vital  force,  would  have  argued 
ill  of  his  future,  till  he  observed  the  remarkable  prominence 
of  his  perceptive  organs,  and  the  full  development  of  some 
portions  of  the  upper  moral  region  of  the  brain.  "  Here  is  a 
young  fellow,"  he  might  have  said,  "  who  will  hold  on  if  he 
takes  hold,  and  go  far  if  he  sets  out  ;  but  he  will  generally 
take  hold  of  the  right  thing,  and  set  out  to  go  to  the  right 
place  ;  but,  right  or  wrong,  he  will  not  let  go,  nor  turn 
back." 

He  was  a  brave  young  man,  without  being,  in  the  slight 
est  degree,  rash.  If  there  ever  lived  a  prudent  man,  Andrew 
Jackson  was  that  individual.  He  dared  much  ;  but  he  never 
dared  to  attempt  what  the  event  showed  he  could  not  do. 
The  reader  is  requested  to  banish  from  his  ingenuous  mind, 
at  his  earliest  convenience,  the  notion  that  Jackson  was  a 
person  who  liked  danger  for  its  own  sake,  and  who  rushed 
into  it  without  having  weighed  (in  his  own  rapid  way)  the 
probable  and  possible  consequences.  He  was  consummately 
prudent.  We  have  heard  a  great  deal  of  his  irascibility  ; 
and  he  most  assuredly  was  an  irascible  man.  But,  observe ; 
he  seldom  quite  gave  up  the  rein  to  his  anger.  His  wrath 
was  a  fiery  nag  enough  ;  but  people  who  stood  close  to  him 
when  he  was  foaming  and  champing  and  pawing,  could  see 
that  there  was  a  patent  curb  in  his  bridle  which  the  rider 
had  a  quiet  but  firm  hold  of.  It  was  a  Scotch-Irish  anger. 
It  was  fierce,  but  never  had  any  ill  effect  upon  his  own  pur 
poses  j  on  the  contrary,  he  made  it  serve  him,  sometimes,  by 


1787.]  JACKSON      AT      TWENTY.  113 

seeming  to  be  much  more  angry  than  he  was  ;  a  way  with 
others  of  his  race.  "  No  man,"  writes  an  intimate  associate 
of  his  for  forty  years,  "  knew  better  than  Andrew  Jackson 
when  to  (jet  into  a  passion  and  when  not"  Yet,  for  all  that, 
he  was,  sometimes,  a  most  tinder-like  and  touchy  fellow — as 
we  shall  see. 

This  young  lawyer,  like  most  of  those  who  had  seen  and 
felt  what  liberty  had  cost,  was  a  very  warm  lover  of  his 
country.  He  remembered — how  vividly  he  remembered  !— 
the  scenes  of  the  recent  Revolution  ;  his  mother's  sad  fate, 
and  its  cause  ;  the  misery  and  needless  death  of  his  brother  ; 
his  own  painful  captivity  ;  the  Waxhaw  massacre  ;  the  rav 
aged  homes  of  his  relatives  and  neighbors  ;  Taiieton'«  un 
sparing  onslaughts  ;  and  all  the  wild  and  shocking  ferocities 
of  the  war,  as  it  was  waged  in  the  border  counties  of  North 
Carolina.  These  things  made  the  deepest  imaginable  im 
pression  upon  his  mind.  He  could  scarcely  place  other  citi 
zens  upon  the  same  level  as  the  soldiers  of  the  Eevolution  ; 
whom  he  regarded  as  a  kind  of  republican  aristocracy,  en 
titled,  before  all  others,  to  honor  and  office.  At  this  age, 
and  long  after,  he  cherished  that  intense  antipathy  to  Great 
Britain  which  distinguished  the  survivors  of  the  Revolution  ; 
some  traces  of  which  could  be  discerned  in  the  less  enlight 
ened  parts  of  the  country  until  within  these  few  years.  In 
these  respects,  he  was  the  most  American  of  Americans — 
an  embodied  Declaration-of-Independence — the  Fourth-of- 
July  incarnate  ! 

His  mother,  we  have  said,  designed  him  for  the  church. 
We  find  him  choosing  the  profession  of  the  law.  We  shall 
discover,  too,  that  he  distinctly  sets  up  to  be  a  man  of  the 
world,  and  goes  through  life  as  such,  down  almost  to  the 
very  end.  The  thing  called  the  Code  of  Honor  was  the  ten 
commandments  of  the  men-of- the- world  of  that  day,  and 
their  god  was  Reputation.  How  was  it  that  the  rustic 
Jackson,  the  son  of  -such  parents  as  his,  the  connection  of 
half  the  members  of  the  old  Waxhaw  Presbyterian  church, 
should  have  gone  this  road  ?  There  is  no  clear  light  to  be 


114  LIFE     OF     ANDKEW    JACKSON.  [1787. 

had  upon  the  point.  The  war,  I  presume,  introduced  him 
to  the  habits  and  feelings  of  soldiers  ;  and  his  fine  friends 
from  Charleston  may  have  given  him  some  distaste  for  the 
simple  old  ways  of  the  Waxhaw  settlement.  But  he  came 
of  blood  too  honest  and  kindly  to  suffer,  from  this  adoption 
of  the  Code  of  Honor,  that  moral  annihilation  which  it 
brought  upon  some  of  his  contemporaries.  His  instincts 
were  better  than  his  principles.  The  virtues  of  Honesty  and 
Chastity — kindred  and  fundamental,  from  which  come  all 
the  good  and  joy  of  life — were  his,  as  it  were,  by  inheritance. 
Jackson  was  one  of  those  who  may  be  said  to  be  solvent  by 
nature;  a  fact  which  goes  far  to  justify  the  immovable 
confidence  which  the  masses  of  the  people  came  to  have 
in  their  unlettered,  and,  in  some  respects,  unlovely  hero  ; 
while  they  never  could  be  brought  to  love  or  trust  some  of 
his  contemporaries,  whose  debts  were  as  magnificent  as  their 
endowments. 

But  we  must  not  linger  too  long  on  the  threshold.  Our 
young  friend  has  a  very  long  and  most  eventful  journey  be 
fore  him.  The  rest  of  his  equipment  is  sufficiently  known. 
From  the  schools  he  has  derived  little  ;  from  the  law-books 
not  much  ;  from  fortune  nothing.  He  mounts  ;  he  is  away. 
He  leaves  Salisbury  possessing  little  beside  the  horse  he  rides, 
his  lawyer's  license,  a  law-book  or  two,  youthful  energies  and 
youthful  hopes. 

A  year  now  goes  by,  in  which  he  is  nearly  lost  to  view. 
He  used  to  say  that,  after  being  admitted  to  the  bar,  he  lived 
awhile  at  Martinsville,  Guilford  county,  North  Carolina, 
where  two  intimate  friends  of  his,  Henderson  and  Searcy, 
kept  a  store.  That  village  has  long  ago  disappeared  ;  there 
is  but  one  old,  uninhabited  house  now  to  be  seen  where  it 
stood.  There  is  a  tradition  in  the  State,  that  he  accepted  a 
constable's  commission  this  year — an  office  of  more  conse 
quence  then  than  now.  The  strong  probability  is,  that  he 
assisted  his  friends  in  their  store,  and  so  gained  an  insight 
into  the  mystery  of  frontier  store-keeping  which  he  after 
wards  turned  to  account. 


1788.]  TO     TENNESSEE.  115 

While  he  was  thus  employed,  and  waiting  for  a  chance  to 
begin  the  practice  of  his  profession,  a  suitable  field  of  action 
was  preparing  for  him  over  the  mountains. 


CHAPTER    X. 

TO     TENNESSEE. 

THE  settlement  of  a  new  region,  in  the  old,  heroic  times, 
was  a  progressive  affair.  At  first  the  wilderness,  unbroken 
and  unknown,  excited  only  the  curiosity  of  the  advanced  set 
tlers.  Some  wandering  Indian,  in  answer  to  their  eager  ques 
tions,  would  draw  upon  the  earth  a  rude  map  of  the  land 
desired,  and  give,  in  Indian  grunts  and  gestures,  some  hints 
of  its  great  features,  its  mountains,  rivers,  lakes  and  hunting 
grounds.  One  daring  hunter,  of  the  Boone  or  Leather- 
stocking  stamp,  at  last,  would  venture  in  to  explore  the  vast 
unknown,  and,  returning,  tell  to  gaping  groups  the  wonders 
he  had  seen.  A  trader  next,  keen  in  the  pursuit  of  furs,  and 
anxious  to  find  fresh  Indians,  who  would  sell  a  beaver  skin 
for  a  bead,  essayed  the  pathless  wild.  Other  traders  would 
soon  follow  in  his  trail.  Hunters  would  then  advance  some 
distance  into  the  wilderness,  and  build  their  cabins,  and  live 
for  months  on  the  banks  of  a  secluded  stream,  and  then  re 
turn  laden  with  the  spoils  of  the  trap.  Thus  the  country 
gradually  became  known. 

Settlers,  who  meant  to  till  the  soil  and  found  homes,  would 
next  invade  the  wilderness,  and  plant  themselves  on  the  fav 
orable  locations  nearest  their  former  homes.  Others  would 
join  them.  New  settlements  would  be  formed.  A  mania 
for  emigrating  to  the  new  country  would  begin  to  rage  in  the 
old  settlements,  and  the  forests  to  resound  with  the  tramp, 
and  bells,  and  rifles  of  successive  companies.  Before  the  new 
settlements  were  well  established,  there  would  begin  encroach- 


116  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1788. 

ments  on  the  territory  of  the  Indians,  or  a  wanton  murder 
of  an  Indian  occurred.  The  Indians  would  retaliate,  and 
then  the  period  of  Indian  warfare  set  in,  and  lasted  till  the 
surrounding  tribes  were  subdued  or  intimidated. 

A  process  like  this  had  been  going  on  in  Tennessee  during 
the  whole  life  of  Andrew  Jackson.  Captain  William  Bean, 
the  first  settler  in  Tennessee,  went  into  that  country  when 
Andrew  was  two  years  old.  Eussell  Bean,  with  whom  Jack 
son  had  once  a  curious  interview,  to  be  related  hereafter,  was 
the  first  white  child  born  in  Tennessee.  By  the  time  Jackson 
began  the  study  of  the  law,  there  were  some  thousands  of 
settlers  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  the  old  blazed  pathway, 
by  which,  in  single  file,  the  first  settlers  penetrated  the  moun 
tain  wilderness,  was  beginning  to  be  widened  and  smoothed 
down  into  some  rough  resemblance  to  a  road.  Nay,  Spruce 
McCay,  Jackson's  master  in  the  law,  and  Waightstill  Avery, 
of  Burke  county,  to  whom  he  had  first  applied  for  instruc 
tion,  had  attended  court  at  Jonesboro,  the  first  court  ever 
held  in  Tennessee,*  and  could  tell  the  young  student  all 
about  the  new  country  ;  and  while  Jackson  was  studying 
law  and  playing  pranks  at  Salisbury,  events  were  transpiring 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Alleghanies  which  made  that  district 
the  talk  of  the  whole  State,  and,  particularly,  the  talk  of  all 
who  had  the  entree  of  law  offices. 

The  whole  of  what  we  now  call  Tennessee — that  central 
oblong  block  on  the  map,  extending  from  the  Alleghanies  to 
the  Mississippi — -was  known  to  the  youthful  Jackson  and  his 
cotemporaries  as  Washington  county,  North  Carolina.  So  it 
was  named  in  1777,  when  Andy  was  a  school-boy.  After 
ward  it  formed  two  counties  of  North  Carolina,  and  then 
three.  Soon  after  the  Revolution,  North  Carolina,  not 
unwilling  to  get  rid  of  a  country  which,  owing  to  the  Indian 
wars,  was  getting  to  be  more  troublesome  than  profitable, 
oifered  to  cede  her  territory  west  of  the  mountains  to  Con 
gress,  as  her  share  of  the  expenses  of  the  Revolution,  provided 

*  Ramsey's  Tennessee,  page  274. 


1788.]  T  O     T  E  N  N  E  S  S  E  E  .  117 

Congress  would  accept  the  grant  within  two  years.  The  set 
tlers,  hearing  the  news  of  this  act,  and  hearing  it  incorrectly 
related,  feared  a  two  years'  interval  of  no  government,  and  at 
once  set  up  a  government  of  their  own,  declaring  their  inde 
pendence. 

Whereupon,  North  Carolina  repealed  her  act  of  cession, 
and  reclaimed  her  progeny  ;  but  the  settlers,  not  compre 
hending  these  maternal  caprices,  and  having  tasted  the  sweets 
of  independence,  held  on  their  way,  completed  the  organiza 
tion  of  their  State,  named  it  Franklin,  and  elected  John 
Sevier  governor.  Flat  rebellion,  said  the  authorities  of  the 
parent  State.  A  period  of  distraction  and  turbulence  ensued. 
Two  sets  of  officers  in  all  the  settlements,  one  appointed  by 
the  authorities  of  North  Carolina,  the  other  by  those  of 
Franklin ;  hot  disputes  between  the  two,  often  ending  in 
blows  ;  one  set  of  court  officers  ejecting  the  other  from  the 
court  room  ;  two  parties  in  every  town  and  county  ;  "  Hur 
rah  for  North  Carolina,"  the  battle-cry  of  one  ;  "  Hurrah  for 
Franklin,"  the  watch- word  of  the  other. 

In  these  circumstances,  Governor  Caswell,  of  North  Caro 
lina,  wrote  an  explanatory  and  conciliatory  address  to  the 
western  settlers,  which  convinced  and  won  over  so  large  a 
majority  of  them,  that  the  State  of  Franklin  melted  away, 
and  left  Governor  Sevier  without  a  government.  North 
Carolina,  like  a  good  mother  that  she  was,  forgave  all  her  re 
bellious  children,  except  Sevier,  who  had  been  the  hero  of  the 
revolt,  and  who  was  still  the  idol  of  the  western  country. 
Him  she  laid  in  wait  for,  captured,  and  brought  a  prisoner 
to  Morganton,  Burke  county,  where  he  was  to  be  tried. 

A  party  of  Sevier' s  devoted  friends  hurried  over  the  moun 
tains  to  the  rescue  of  their  chief,  the  hero  of  thirty  battles. 
Their  plan  was,  according  to  an  eye-witness,*  to  obtain  his 
release  by  stratagem,  and  if  that  failed,  to  tire  the  town, 
burst  open  the  prison-doors,  and  bear  off  the  prisoner  to  the 
mountains.  The  frontier  village  of  Morganton  was  swarm- 

*  Narrative  of  William  Smith,  in  Ramsey's  Tennessee,  page  428. 


118  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1788. 

irig  with  people,  drawn  together  by  the  fame  of  tlrj  prisoner 
and  the  notoriety  of  the  recent  events.  The  rescuing  party 
were  six  in  number,  four  of  whom  concealed  themselves  near 
the  town,  while  the  other  two,  Cozby  and  Evans,  went  for 
ward  into  it.  These  two  rode  on  to  a  point  near  the  court 
house,  tied  their  horses,  hid  their  rifles,  and  boldly  entered 
the  throng;  their  hunting-shirts — the  common  costume  of 
the  period — hiding  their  pistols.  Evans  led  to  the  court 
house  door  a  famous  mare  of  Sevier's,  and  stood  there  hold 
ing  the  bridle  carelessly,  apparently  an  unconcerned  spectator 
of  the  scene  around. 

Cozby  entered  the  court  house,  and  there  saw  his  leader 
arraigned  before  the  judge,  undergoing  trial  for  high  crimes 
and  misdemeanors.  The  prisoner  turned  his  head,  and  their 
eyes  met.  Sevier  knew  that  rescue  was  near ;  but,  warned 
by  a  shake  of  Cozby' s  head,  he  made  no  sign,  though  a  tear 
of  grateful  joy  was  observed  to  steal  down  his  bronzed  and 
manly  countenance.  There  was  a  pause  in  the  proceedings. 
Cozby  stepped  before  the  judge,  and  said  in  a  quick,  emphatic 
manner,  that  made  every  one  start — 

"  Judge,  have  you  done  with  that  man  ?" 

At  this  moment,  Sevier  caught  a  glimpse  of  his  favorite 
mare  through  the  opened  door  of  the  court  house.  Taking 
advantage  of  the  confusion  caused  by  Cozby 's  question,  he 
sprang  to  the  door,  leaped  to  the  saddle,  and  broke  away 
through  the  crowd. 

"  Yes,"  said  a  voice  in  the  court  house,  "  I'll  be  d — d  if 
you're  not  done  with  him  \" 

The  confederates  were  soon  together  at  the  rendezvous 
outside  the  town.  That  night  they  slept  at  the  house  of 
a  friend  twenty  miles  away,  and  were  soon  safe  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Alleghanies.  The  next  year,  Sevier  was  elected 
to  the  Legislature  of  North  Carolina,  and,  on  presenting  him 
self  at  the  capital,  an  act  of  oblivion  was  passed,  and  he  took 
his  seat  in  triumph  ! 

Jackson  may  have  witnessed  this  celebrated  rescue  of 
Governor  Sevier.  About  the  time  of  its  occurrence,  in  1788, 


1788.]  TO     TENNESSEE.  119 

he  was  at  Morganton,  on  a  visit  to  Colonel  Waightstill 
A  very,  and  on  his  way  to  the  western  wilds  of  Tennessee. 
Morganton  was  then  the  last  of  the  frontier  towns  of  North 
Carolina,  and  the  starting-place  for  emigrants  to  the  West. 

Upon  the  settlement  of  the  difficulties  between  North 
Carolina  and  her  western  counties,  John  McNairy,  a  friend 
of  Jackson's,  was  appointed  judge  of  the  Superior  Court  for 
the  western  district.  Jackson  was  invested  with  the  office  of 
solicitor,  or  public  prosecutor,  for  the  same  district.  This 
office  was  not  in  request,  nor  desirable.  It  was,  in  fact,  diffi 
cult  to  get  a  suitable  person  to  accept  an  appointment  of  the 
kind,  which  was  to  be  exercised  in  a  wilderness  five  hundred 
miles  distant  from  the  populous  parts  of  North  Carolina,  and 
where  the  office  of  prosecutor  was  sure  to  be  unpopular,  diffi 
cult  and  dangerous.  Thomas  Searcy,  another  of  Jackson's 
friends,  received  the  appointment  of  clerk  of  the  court. 
Three  or  four  more  of  his  young  acquaintances,  lawyers  and 
others,  resolved  to  go  with  him,  and  seek  their  fortune  in  the 
new  and  vaunted  country  of  the  West.  The  party  rendez 
voused  at  Morganton  in  the  spring  or  early  summer  of  1788, 
mounted  and  equipped  'for  a  ride  over  the  mountains  to 
Jonesboro,  then  the  chief  settlement  of  East  Tennessee,  and 
the  first  halting-place  of  companies  bound  to  the  lands  on 
the  Cumberland  river. 

There  was  but  one  mode  of  traversing  the  wilderness. " 
"A  poor  man/'  says  Kamsey,  "with  seldom  more  than  a 
single  pack-horse,  on  which  the  wife  and  infant  were  carried, 
with  a  few  clothes  and  bed-quilts,  a  skillet  and  a  small  sack 
of  meal,  was  often  seen  wending  his  way  along  the  narrow 
mountain  trace,  with  a  rifle  on  his  shoulder,  the  elder  sons 
carrying  an  ax,  a  hoe,  sometimes  an  auger  and  a  saw,  and 
the  elder  daughters  leading  or  carrying  the  smaller  children." 
Our  cavalcade  of  judge,  solicitor,  clerk  and  lawyers,  wended 
their  way  in  double  file  along  the  same  road,  each  riding  his 
own  horse  ;  a  pack-horse  or  two  carrying  the  effects  of  the 
learned  judge.  Every  horseman  had  in  his  saddle-bags  a 
small  wallet,  in  which  he  carried  letters  from  citizens  in  the 


120  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1788. 

old  States  to  settlers  in  the  new — a  service  most  cheerfully 
and  punctiliously  performed  in  those  days,  Mr.  Ramsey 
tells  us.  At  night,  of  course,  there  was  no  choice  but  to 
camp  out  in  the  open  air  by  the  side  of  the  path.  Be 
tween  Morganton  and  Jonesboro  there  were  then  no  hostile 
Indians,  and  the  first  stage  of  the  journey  was  performed 
without  difficulty  and  without  adventure.  Indeed  the  trace 
between  these  towns  had  become  a  road,  safe  for  wagons  of 
a  rough  frontier  construction. 

Jonesboro,  long  the  principal  town  of  East  Tennessee, 
and  often  the  scene  of  Jackson's  labors  at  the  bar,  was  ten 
years  old,  or  more,  when  the  judicial  party  reached  it.  It 
had  grown  to  be  a  place  of  fifty  or  sixty  log-houses.  It  had 
a  new  court  house  even.  The  first  courts  had  been  held  in 
any  house  that  could  be  obtained ;  but  early  in  the  history  of 
Jonesboro,  the  people  had  built  a  house  expressly  for  the  pur 
pose  of  holding  courts.  It  was  a  small  edifice  of  unhewn 
logs,  sixteen  feet  square,  without  windows  or  floor.  A  year 
or  two  before  Jackson's  arrival,  this  primeval  structure,  hav 
ing  ceased  to  satisfy  the  inhabitants,  they  set  about  building 
one  more  spacious  and  elegant,  which  was  thus  described  in 
the  original  plan  :  "  The  court  recommend  that  there  be  a 
court  house  built  in  the  following  manner,  namely  :  twenty- 
four  feet  square,  diamond  corners,  and  hewn  down  after  it  is 
built  up  ;  nine  feet  high  between  the  two  floors  ;  body  of  the 
house  four  feet  above  upper  floor ;  floors  neatly  laid  with 
plank ;  shingles  of  roof  to  be  hung  with  pegs  ;  a  justice's 
bench  ;  a  lawyers*  and  clerk's  bar  ;  also  a  sheriff's  box  to 
sit  in."* 

At  such  a  stage  of  legal  development  had  Jonesboro  ar 
rived,  when  Jackson  first  saw  it  in  1788. 

The  judge  and  his  party  remained  several  weeks  at  Jones 
boro,  waiting  for  the  assembling  of  a  sufficient  number  of 
emigrants,  and  for  the  arrival  of  a  guard  from  Nashville  to 
escort  them.  Nashville  is  one  hundred  and  eighty-three 

*  Ramsey's  Tennessee,  p.  281. 


1788.]  TO     TENNESSEE.  121 

miles  from  Jonesboro.  The  road  ran  through  a  gap  in  the 
Cumberland  mountains,  and  thence  entered  a  wilderness 
more  dangerously  infested  with  hostile  Indians  than  any 
other  portion  of  the  western  country — not  even  excepting  the 
dark  and  bloody  land  of  Kentucky.  The  original  advertise 
ment  in  the  State  Gazette  of  North  Carolina,  of  November 
28th,  1788,  announcing  the  departure  of  Judge  McNairy's 
company  for  the  Cumberland  settlements,  indicates  the  perils 
of  the  way  :  "  Notice  is  hereby  given,  that  the  new  road 
from  Campbell's  station  to  Nashville,  was  opened  on  the  25th 
of  September,  and  the  guard  attended  at  that  time  to  escort 
such  persons  as  were  ready  to  proceed  to  Nashville  ;  that 
about  sixty  families  went  on,  amongst  whom  were  the  widow 
and  family  of  the  late  General  Davidson,  and  John  McNairy, 
judge  of  the  Superior  Court ;  and  that  on  the  1st  day  of 
October  next,  the  guard  will  attend  at  the  same  place  for  the 
same  purpose/' 

A  strong  tide  of  emigration  was  setting  westward  then. 
North  Carolina  had  rewarded  such  of  her  citizens  as  had 
done  service  in  the  revolutionary  war,  with  grants  of  land 
in  Tennessee  west  of  the  Cumberland  mountains.  The  fame 
of  the  fertility  of  that  region  attracted  other  emigrants. 
Perhaps,  too,  the  renown  of  such  gallant  and  wise  pioneers 
as  James  Kobertson,  John  Donelson,  and  their  comrades,  a 
host  of  choice  spirits,  whose  worthy  monument  is  the  Nash 
ville  of  to-day,  had  its  influence  in  inducing  many  adventur 
ous  young  men  to  brave  the  notorious  dangers  of  the  Cum 
berland  valley  ;  for  the  possession  of  which  two  races  were 
contending. 

Of  Jackson's  journey  through  the  wilderness  on  this  occa 
sion,  but  one  authentic  incident  is  now  remembered  ;  which 
comes  to  me,  in  a  direct  line,  by  trustworthy  channels,  from 
the  lips  of  Thomas  Searcy,  the  clerk  of  the  Superior  Court, 
who  rode  by  Jackson's  side. 

It  was  a  night  scene.  The  company,  nearly  a  hundred  in 
number,  among  whom  were  women  and  children,  had  just 
passed  through  what  was  considered  the  most  dangerous  part 


122  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1788. 

of  the  wilderness.  They  had  marched  thirty-six  hours,  a 
night  and  two  days,  without  halting  longer  than  an  hour  ; 
the  object  being  to  reach  a  certain  point,  which  was  thought 
to  be  safe  camping-ground.  The  place  was  reached  soon 
after  dark,  and  the  tired  travelers  hastened  to  encamp. 

The  spectacle  presented  by  their  camp  may  have  been 
precisely  such  as  is  described  in  that  favorite  novel  of  the 
West,  called  "  Wild  Western  Scenes  :" — "  A  circle  of  tents 
was  formed  round  the  fire,  constructed  of  thin  poles  bent  in 
the  shape  of  an  arch,  and  the  ends  planted  firmly  in  the 
earth.  These  were  covered  with  buffalo  skins  (or  tent  cloths) 
which  would  effectually  shield  the  inmates  from  the  rain  ; 
and  quantities  of  leaves,  after  being  carefully  dried  before 
the  fire,  were  placed  on  the  ground  within,  over  which  were 
spread  buffalo  robes  with  the  hair  uppermost ;  and  thus,  in 
a  brief  space,  were  completed  temporary,  but  not  uncomfort 
able  places  of  repose.  The  ends  of  the  tents  nearest  to  the 
fire  were  open  to  admit  the  heat  and  a  portion  of  light,  that 
those  who  desired  it  might  retire  during  their  repast,  or  en 
gage  in  pious  meditations  undisturbed  by  the  more  clamor 
ous  portion  of  the  company.  A  majority  of  the  emigrants 
were  seated  on  logs  brought  thither  for  that  purpose,  and  , 
feasting  quietly  from  several  large  pans  and  well-filled  camp- 
kettles,  which  were  set  out  for  all  in  common." 

Earlier  in  the  evening  than  usual,  the  exhausted  women 
and  children  of  the  party  crept  into  their  little  tents,  and 
went  to  sleep.  The  men,  except  those  who  were  to  stand 
sentinel  the  first  half  of  the  night,  wrapped  their  blankets 
round  them,  and  laid  down  under  the  lee  of  sheltering  logs, 
with  their  feet  toward  the  fire.  Silence  fell  upon  the  camp. 
All  slept  save  tfce  sentinels,  and  one  of  the  party  who  was 
not  inclined  to  sleep,  tired  as  he  was,  Andrew  Jackson  by 
name.  This  young  gentleman  sat  on  the  ground,  with  his 
back  against  a  tree,  smoking  a  corn-cob  pipe,  for  an  hour 
after  his  companions  had  sunk  into  sleep  ;  whether  because 
he  enjoyed  his  pipe,  or  suspected  danger,  tradition  saith  not. 


1788.]  TO     TENNESSEE.  123 

About  ten  o'clock,  as  he  was  beginning  to  doze,  he  fell  to 
observing  the  various  notes  of  the  owls  that  were  hooting  in 
the  forest  round  him.  A  remarkable  country  this  for  owls, 
he  thought,  as  he  was  falling  asleep.  Just  then,  an  owl  that 
he  had  heard  at  a  considerable  distance^  startled  him  by  set 
ting  up  a  louder  hoot  than  usual  nearer  the  camp.  Some 
thing  peculiar  in  the  note  struck  his  attention.  In  an  in 
stant  he  was  the  widest  awake  man  in  Tennessee.  All  his 
mind  was  in  his  ears,  and  his  ears  were  intent  on  the  hoot 
ing  of  the  owls.  He  grasped  his  rifle,  and  crept  cautiously  to 
where  his  friend  Searcy  was  sleeping,  and  woke  him. 

"  Searcy,"  said  Jackson,  "  raise  your  head  and  make  no 
noise." 

"  What's  the  matter  ?"  asked  Searcy. 

"The  owls — listen — there — there  again.  Is  n't  that  a 
little  too  natural  ?" 

"Do  you  think  so  ?"  asked  Searcy. 

"  I  know  it,"  replied  Jackson.  "  There  are  Indians  all 
around  us.  I  have  heard  them  in  every  direction.  They 
mean  to  attack  before  daybreak." 

The  more  experienced  woodsmen  were  roused,  and  con 
firmed  the  young  lawyer's  surmise.  Jackson  advised  that  the 
camp  be  instantly  but  quietly  broken  up,  and  the  march 
resumed.  His  advice  was  adopted,  and  the  company  neither 
heard  nor  saw  any  further  signs  of  the  presence  of  an  enemy 
during  the  remainder  of  the  night.  A  party  of  hunters,  who 
reached  their  camping  ground  an  hour  after  it  had  been  aban 
doned,  lay  down  by  their  fires  and  slept.  Before  the  day 
dawned,  the  Indians  were  upon  them,  and  killed  all  but  one 
of  the  party.  Near  the  same  spot,  in  the  following  spring, 
when  Judge  McNairy  was  returning  to  Jonesboro,  and  had 
no  Jackson  in  his  retinue,  his  party  was  surprised  in  the 
night  by  Indians,  and  narrowly  escaped  destruction.  One 
white  man  was  killed,  besides  one  friendly  chief  and  his  son. 
The  judge  and  his  companions  were  put  to  total  rout,  fled, 
swam  the  river  upon  which  they  had  encamped,  and  left  their 


124  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1788. 

horses,  camp  equipage  and  clothing  in  the  hands  of  the  sav 
ages.* 

Before  the  end  of  October,  1788,  the  long  train  of  emi 
grants,  among  whom  was  Mr.  Solicitor  Jackson,  reached 
Nashville,  to  the  greajt  joy  of  the  settlers  there,  to  whom  the 
annual  arrival  of  such  a  train  was  all  that  an  arrival  can  be — 
a  thrilling  event,  news  from  home,  reunion  with  friends,  in 
crease  of  wealth,  additional  protection  against  a  foe  power 
ful  and  resolute  to  destroy.  Ramsey  says. :  "  The  new  comer, 
on  his  arrival  in  the  settlements,  was  everywhere  and  at  all 
times  greeted  with  a  cordial  welcome.  Was  he  without  a 
family  ?  He  was  at  once  taken  in  as  a  cropper  or  a  farming 
hand,  and  found  a  home  in  the  kind  family  of  some  settler. 
Had  he  a  wife  and  children  ?  They  were  asked,  in  back 
woods  phrase,  c  to  camp  with  us  till  the  neighbors  can  put 
up  a  cabin  for  you/  r' 

Great  news  reached  Nashville  by  this  train  ;  news  that 
all  was  right  with  the  new  national  Constitution,  a  majority 
of  the  States  having  accepted  it ;  news  that  the  Legislatures 
of  the  States  were  about  choosing  presidential  electors,  who 
would  undoubtedly  elect  Greneral  Washington  the  first  Presi 
dent  of  the  republic.  Washington  was  inaugurated  in  the 
April  following  the  arrival  of  Jackson  at  his  new  home. 

*  Ramsey's  Tennessee,  p.  484. 


1788.]      THE     SOLICITOR     FINDS     LODGINGS.          125 

CHAPTER     XI. 

THE     SOLICITOR     FINDS     LODGINGS. 

THERE  must  have  been  good  stuff  in  Frenchmen  once. 
The  best  proof  of  manhood  which  that  race  has  given,  since 
it  banished  its  elite,  the  Huguenots,  was  its  assisting  to 
explore  and  colonize  our  western  wilderness.  The  modern 
Frenchman  looks  on  the  map  of  Europe  for  his  country's 
glory.  More  glorious  to  Frenchmen  is  the  map  of  North 
America,  which  French  valor  and  endurance,  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years  ago,  scattered  all  over  with  French  names.  New 
Orleans,  Canada,  the  French  trappers  and  voyageurs  of  Coop- 
ers's  novels  and  living's  narratives,  are  better  evidence  of 
sterling  metal  than  Austerlitz  and  Marengo. 

For  man  has  done  few  things  more  truly  remarkable  than 
the  conquest  of  North  America  from  the  wilderness  and  the 
savage.  The  revolutionary  war  was  a  very  small  matter  in 
comparison. 

Consider  Nashville,  for  example.  There  is  no  region  bet 
ter  adapted  to  the  purposes  of  man  than  that  of  which  Nash 
ville  is  the  center  and  capital.  A  gently  undulating  and  most 
fertile  country  ;  a  land  of  hard  wood,  with  the  beautiful  river 
Cumberland  winding  through  the  midst  thereof.  It  happens 
that  the  country  which  is  best  for  the  civilized  man  is  best 
for  the  savage  also.  The  valley  of  the  Cumberland  was  a 
hunting-ground  so  keenly  coveted  by  surrounding  tribes  that 
the  race  which  originally  held  it,  worn  out  by  the  incessant 
wars,  abandoned  it  in  despair ;  so  that  when  French  M. 
Charlville,  in  1714,  established  himself  on  the'  site  of  Nash 
ville,  he  found  the  country  almost  depopulated,  and,  conse 
quently,  abounding  in  the  wild  beasts  whose  skins  he  came 
to  trap  and  trade  for.  In  an  old  deserted  Shawnee  fort  on 
the  rocky  bluffs  of  the  Cumberland,  M.  Charlville  and  his 
French  trappers  stored  their  goods  and  furs. 

The  Frenchmen,  it  seems,  trapped  and  traded  in  peace 
VOL.  i. — 9 


126  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1788. 

for  many  years  ;  Indian  instinct  not  discerning  in  them  the 
possible  subduers  and  masters  of  the  country.  Boone  passed 
westward  in  1769.  A  party  of  nine  or  ten  hunters  penetrated 
the  Cumberland  wilderness  in  1771,  but  remained  not.  In 
1779  a  little  company  of  pioneers,  nine  in  number,  headed 
by  Captain  James  Kobertson,  pitched  their  camp  upon  the 
site  of  Charlville's  abandoned  settlement,  with  the  design  of 
settling  there.  Not  another  white  man  within  a  hundred 
miles.  No  effective  succor  nearer  than  three  hundred.  Twen 
ty  thousand  Indians,  the  most  warlike  and  intelligent  of  their 
race,  within  a  week's  run. 

Captain  James  Kobertson  left  the  c  settlements'  about 
Jonesboro  with  the  understanding  that  his  friend,  Colonel 
John  Donelson,  a  brave  and  wealthy  old  Virginia  surveyor, 
was  at  once  to  follow  him  to  the  banks  of  the  Cumberland 
with  a  party  of  emigrants.  Robertson  and  his  party  were 
only  pioneers,  who  were  to  build  huts  and  plant  corn  against 
the  arrival  of  the  main  body  under  Donelson.  Robertson's 
party  consisted  of  men  ;  Donelson's  of  families,  among  whom 
was  the  family  of  Robertson  himself.  To  avoid  the  toil  and 
peril  of  the  route  through  the  wilderness,  then  little  known 
and  unbroken,  Colonel  Donelson  conceived  the  astounding  idea 
of  attempting  to  reach  the  new  settlement  by  water  :  down 
the  river  Holston  to  the  Tennessee,  down  the  Tennessee  to 
the  Ohio,  up  the  Ohio  to  the  Cumberland,  up  the  Cumber 
land  to  Captain  Robertson  and  a  New  Home.  The  whole 
distance  was  considerably  more  than  two  thousand  miles.  No 
man,  white  or  red,  had  ever  attempted  the  voyage.  The 
greater  part  of  the  route  was  infested  by  Indians.  The  pro 
ject,  in  short,  was  worthy,  for  its  boldness,  of  the  destined 
father-in-law  of  General  Jackson.  Among  those  who  shared 
the  dangers  of  this  voyage  was  Rachel  Donelson,  the  leader's 
daughter,  a  black-eyed,  black-haired  brunette,  as  gay,  bold 
and  handsome  a  lass  as  ever  danced  on  the  deck  of  a  flat  boat, 
or  took  the  helm  while  her  father  took  a  shot  at  the  Indians. 
We  shall  meet  this  young  lady  often  in  the  course  of  our  nar 
rative. 


1788.]        THE     SOLICITOR     FINDS     LODGINGS.         127 

The  voyage  lasted  four  months.  Colonel  Donelson  kept 
a  journal,  in  which  he  entered  whatever  occurred  that  was 
unusual,  but  with  such  brevity,  that  the  history  of  that  long 
voyage,  as  written  by  Donelson,  could  be  printed  on  six  of 
these  pages.  The  manuscript  is  still  preserved  in  the  family 
of  one  of  his  grandchildren,  entitled,  "Journal  of  a  Voyage, 
intended  by  God's  Permission,  in  the  good  boat  Adventure, 
from  Patrick  Henry  on  Holston  river  to  the  French  Salt 
Springs  on  Cumberland  liver;  kept  by  John  Donald 
son." 

Starting  in  the  depth  of  a  winter  long  remembered  for  its 
severity,  the  "  good  boat"  was  often  delayed  by  the  fall  of 
water  and  "  most  excessive  hard  frost ;"  so  that  two  months 
passed  before  it  began  to  make  good  progress.  Joined  by 
other  boats  in  the  spring,  the  Adventure  floated  down  the 
winding,  rippling,  beautiful  Tennessee,  in  company  with  a 
considerable  fleet,  bound  for  the  lower  country.  Many  and 
dire  were  the  mishaps  that  befell  them.  Sometimes  a  boat 
would  run  upon  a  shoal,  and  remain  immovable  till  its  entire 
contents  were  landed.  Sometimes  a  boat  was  whirled  around 
a  bend  and  dashed  against  a  projecting  point,  and  sunk. 
Once  a  young  man  went  hunting,  .and  did  not  return.  They 
fired  their  four-pounder  and  searched  the  woods,  but  in  vain. 
The  fleet  sailed  away,  but  the  old  father  of  the  lost  hunter 
staid  behind,  alone  in  the  wilderness,  to  continue  the  search. 
Both  were  rescued  at  length.  One  man  died  of  his  frozen 
limbs.  Two  children  were  born.  On  board  one  boat,  con 
taining  twenty-eight  persons,  the  small-pox  was  raging,  and 
it  was  agreed  that  this  boat  should  always  sail  a  certain  dis 
tance  behind  the  rest,  but  within  hearing  of  a  horn.  The 
wily  Indians  pounced  upon  the  infected  boat,  killed  the  fight 
ing  men,  took  prisoners  the  women  and  children,  carried  off 
the  contents  of  the  boat  into  the  woods,  and  nothing  further 
was  seen  of  either.  "  Their  cries  were  distinctly  heard,"  says 
the  journal,  "  by  those  boats  in  the  rear  ;"  and  it  was  a  great 
grief  to  the  whole  company,  "  uncertain  how  soon  they  might 
share  the  same  fate."  The  Indians  caught  the  small-pox,  of 


128  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1788. 

which,  hundreds   died    before    the    disease    had    spent    its 
force.* 

By  and  by,  they  came  to  "  the  place  called  the  Whirl  or 
Suck,  where  the  river  is  compressed  within  less  than  half  its 
common  width  by  the  Cumberland  mountain,  which  juts  in 
on  both  sides."  There  the  whole  fleet  was  brought  to  the 
verge  of  ruin.  In  rushing  by  the  narrowest  part  of  the 
Whirl,  called  the  Boiling  Pot,  one  of  the  large  canoes  was 
overturned,  and  all  the  effects  of  one  of  the  families  were 
thrown  into  the  river.  It  was  the  family  of  a  man  poorer 
than  the  rest ;  so  all  the  fleet,  "  pitying  his  distress,  con 
cluded  to  halt  and  assist  him  in  recovering  his  property." 
While  engaged  in  this  benevolent  work,  suddenly  a  fire  was 
opened  on  them  by  a  large  force  of  Indians,  concealed  in  the 
cliffs  above.  The  emigrants  sprang  to  their  boats,  and  hur 
ried  away,  with  four  of  their  number  wounded.  All  along 
this  narrow  part  of  the  river,  the  Indians,  hidden  in  the  cliffs, 
kept  firing  down  upon  the  boats,  but  without  effect.  All  got 
safely  through  the  Whirl  but  one.  "  Jennings'  boat  is  miss 
ing,"  Colonel  Donelson  quietly  enters  in  his  journal.  Then, 
resuming  his  pen,  he  continues  :  "  We  have  now  passed 
through  the  Whirl.  The  river  widens  with  a  placid  and  gen 
tle  current,  and  all  the  company  appear  to  be  in  safety  except 
the  family  of  Jonathan  Jennings,  whose  boat  ran  on  a  large 
rock,  projecting  out  from  the  northern  shore,  and  partly  im 
mersed  in  water,  immediately  at  the  Whirl,  where  we  were 
obliged  to  leave  them,  perhaps  to  be  slaughtered  by  their 
merciless  enemies." 

But  Jennings  proved  to  be  a  man  difficult  to  slaughter. 
It  was  Wednesday  afternoon  when  the  fleet  left  him  to  his 
fate  on  the  sunken  rock.  On  Friday,  Colonel  Donelson  com 
pleted  his  story  in  his  journal  thus  :  "  This  morning,  about 
four  o'clock,  we  were  surprised  by  the  cries  of,  '  Help  poor 
Jennings,'  at  some  distance  in  the  rear.  He  had  discovered 
us  by  our  fires,  and  came  up  in  the  most  wretched  condition. 

*  Putnam's  History  of  Middle  Tennessee. 


1788.J      THE     SOLICITOR     FINDS     LODGINGS.          129 

He  states,  that  as  soon  as  the  Indians  discovered  his  situa 
tion,  they  turned  their  whole  attention  to  him,  and  kept  up 
a  most  galling  fire  at  his  boat.  He  ordered  his  wife,  a  son 
nearly  grown,  a  young  man  who  accompanied  them,  and  his 
negro  man  and  woman,  to  throw  all  his  goods  into  the  river 
to  lighten  their  boat,  for  the  purpose  of  getting  her  off;  him 
self  returning  their  fire  as  well  as  he  could,  being  a  good  sol 
dier  and  an  excellent  marksman.  *  *  Mrs.  Jennings  and 
the  negro  woman  succeeded  in  unloading  the  boat,  but  chiefly 
by  the  exertions  of  Mrs.  Jennings,  who  got  out  of  the  boat 
and  shoved  her  off,  but  was  near  falling  a  victim  to  her  in 
trepidity,  on  account  of  the  boat  starting  so  suddenly  as  soon 
as  loosened  from  the  rock.  Upon  examination,  he  appears 
to  have  made  a  wonderful  escape,  for  his  boat  is  pierced  in 
numberless  places  with  bullets.  It  is  to  be  remarked,  that 
Mrs.  Peyton,  (whose  husband  was  one  of  Robertson's  over 
land  party,)  who  was  the  night  before  delivered  of  an  infant, 
which  was  unfortunately  killed  upon  the  hurry  and  confusion 
consequent  upon  such  a  disaster,  assisted  them,  being  fre 
quently  exposed  to  wet  and  cold,  then  and  afterward ;  and 
that  her  health  appears  to  be  good  at  this  time,  and  I  think 
and  hope  she  will  do  well.  Their  clothes  were  very  much  cut 
with  bullets,  especially  Mrs.  Jennings." 

What  women  could  endure,  and  dare,  and  do,  in  those 
days  ! 

Down,  down  the  Tennessee,  until  they  reached  the  Muscle 
Shoals,  where  they  had  a  dire  disappointment.  At  that 
place,  Captain  Robertson  had  agreed  to  leave  certain  signs 
for  Colonel  Donelson's  guidance  ;  at  least  to  show  him  that 
white  men  and  friends  had  been  there.  But  Robertson, 
struggling  for  life  in  that  fierce,  unexampled  winter,  had  not 
been  able  to  send  a  party  across  the  country  from  the  Cum 
berland  settlement  to  the  Tennessee.  So  Colonel  Donelson 
had  nothing  to  do  but  trim  his  boat,  take  the  helm,  set  his 
teeth,  and  run  through  the  Shoals.  "  When  we  approached 
them  they  had  a  dreadful  appearance  to  those  who  had  never 
seen  them  before.  The  water  being  high  made  a  terrible 


130  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1788. 

roaring,  which  could  be  heard  at  some  distance,  among  the 
drift-wood  heaped  frightfully  upon  the  points  of  the  islands  ; 
the  current  running  in  every  possible  direction.  Here  we  did 
riot  know  how  soon  we  should  be  dashed  to  pieces,  and  all 
our  troubles  ended  at  once.  Our  boats  frequently  dragged 
on  the  bottom,  and  appeared  constantly  in  danger  of  striking. 
They  warped  as  much  as  in  a  rough  sea.  But  by  the  hand 
of  Providence  we  are  now  preserved  from  this  danger  also. 
I  know  not  the  length  of  this  wonderful  shoal ;  it  has  been 
represented  to  be  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles.  If  so,  we  must 
have  descended  very  rapidly,  as  indeed  we  did,  foi  we  passed 
it  in  about  three  hours." 

The  crowning  entry  of  this  journal  is  that  which  records 
the  arrival  of  the  boats  at  the  junction  of  the  Tennessee  and 
Ohio  ;  from  which  point  Colonel  Donelson's  course  lay  up 
the  stream.  One  word  of  this  entry  I  take  the  liberty  to 
italicise  :  "  Our  situation  here  is  truly  disagreeable.  The 
river  is  very  high,  and  the  current  rapid  ;  our  boats  not  con 
structed  for  the  purpose  of  stemming  a  rapid  stream  ;  our 
provisions  exhausted  ;  the  crews  almost  worn  down  with 
hunger  and  fatigue  ;  and  know  not  what  distance  we  have 
to  go,  or  what  time  it  will  take  us  to  reach  our  place  of  des 
tination.  The  scene  is  rendered  still  more  melancholy,  as 
several  boats  will  not  attempt  to  ascend  the  rapid,  current 
Some  intend  to  descend  the  Mississippi  to  Natchez  ;  others 
are  bound  for  the  Illinois — among  the  rest  my  son-in-law 
and  daughter.  We  now  part,  perhaps,  to  meet  no  more,  for 
I  am  determined  to  pursue  my  course,  come  what  will." 

And  so  he  did.  The  good  boat  Adventure  was  poled,  and 
rowed,  and  towed,  and  tugged,  and  sailed  up  the  swift  Ohio 
into  the  tranquil  Cumberland  and  up  the  tranquil  Cumber 
land  to  the  new  settlement.  The  leader  of  the  expedition 
made  the  last  entry  into  his  journal  on  the  24th  of  April, 
1780 :  "  This  day  we  arrived  at  our  journey's  end  at  the 
Big  Salt  Lick,  where  we  have  the  pleasure  of  finding  Captain 
Robertson  and  his  company.  It  is  a  source  of  satisfaction 
to  us  to  be  enabled  to  restore  to  him  and  others  their  fam- 


1788.]        THE     SOLICITOR     FINDS     LODGINGS.        131 

ilies  and  friends  who  were  entrusted  to  our  care,  and  who, 
sometime  since,  perhaps,  despaired  of  ever  meeting  again. 
Though  our  prospects  at  present  are  dreary  we  have  found  a 
few  log-cabins  which  have  been  built  on  a  cedar  bluff  above 
the  Lick  by  Captain  Kobertson  and  his  company/' 

And  so  the  colony  was  planted.  This  was  but  eight 
years  before  the  arrival  of  Judge  McNairy  and  his  party  of 
young  lawyers.  During  the  whole  of  that  period,  the  settlers 
had  to  battle  for  existence.  The  first  spring  they  nearly 
starved  ;  for  the  extraordinary  winter  had  exhausted  the 
corn  and  thinned  the  game.  In  "  the  settlements,"  that  is, 
in  East  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  corn  sold  that  season  at 
one  hundred  and  sixty-five  dollars  per  bushel.  The  Indians, 
always  hovering  round,  made  it  dangerous  to  go  a  hundred 
yards  from  the  station.*  Poor  Jonathan  Jennings,  whose 
miraculous  escape  from  the  Whirl  we  have  noted,  escaped 
only  to  fall  before  a  lurking  savage  during  his  first  summer 
at  his  new  home.  Never  were  a  people  so  beset.  While 
some  planted  corn,  others  had  to  watch  against  the  skulking 
foe.  When  the  girls  went  blackberrying,  a  guard  invariably 
turned  out  to  escort  them,  and  stand  guard  over  the  sur 
rounding  thickets.  Nay,  if  a  man  went  to  a  spring  to  drink, 
another  stood  on  the  watch  with  his  rifle  cocked  and  poised. 
Whenever  four  or  five  men,  says  the  annalist  of  Tennessee, 
were  assembled  at  a  spring  or  elsewhere,  they  held  their  guns 
in  their  hands,  and  stood,  not  face  to  face  as  they  conversed, 
but  with  their  backs  turned  to  each  other,  all  facing  different 
ways,  watching  for  a  lurking  or  a  creeping  Indian. f 

*  "  To  pass  from  station  to  station,  though  so  near  to  each  other  tnat  the  re 
port  of  a  rifle  could  be  heard  the  distance,  was  to  '  run  the  gauntlet '  with  peril 
of  life.  And  yet  these  people  made  almost  daily  visits  to  each  other." — Putnam's 
History  of  Middle  Tennessee,  page  135. 

f  Governor  Blount  explains  one  dangerous  peculiarity  of  this  region,  in  a  let 
ter  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  dated  1792.  "  The  settlements,"  he  says,  "  extend 
up  and  down  the  Cumberland  river,  from  east  to  west,  about  eighty-five  miles, 
and  the  extreme  width  from  north  to  south  does  not  exceed  twenty-five  miles, 
and  its  general  width  does  not  exceed  half  that  distance ;  and  not  only  the  coun 
try  surrounding  the  extreme  frontier,  but  the  interior  part,  (which  is  to  be  found 


132  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1788. 

With  all  their  precautions,  not  a  month  passed  in  which 
some  one  did  not  fall  before  the  rifle  of  the  sleepless  enemy. 
It  was  a  wonder  the  little  band  was  not  driven  away  or  exter 
minated.  On  one  occasion,  indeed,  it  required  all  of  Captain 
Robertson's  influence  and  eloquence  to  induce  the  settlers 
not  to  abandon  the  spot,  as  its  old  proprietors,  the  Shawnees, 
had  done  before  them,  and,  more  recently,  the  band  of  trad 
ers  and  trappers  under  Charlville.  There  were  times  when 
even  Eobertson  and  his  friends  might  have  fled,  if  to  fly  had 
not  been  more  perilous  than  to  stay. 

The  settlement  grew  apace,  however.  When  Jackson 
arrived  in  1788,  the  stations  along  the  Cumberland  may  have 
contained  five  thousand  souls  or  more.  But  the  place  was 
still  an  outpost  of  civilization,  and  so  exposed  to  Indian  hos 
tility,  that  it  was  not  safe  to  live  five  miles  from  the  central 
stockade — a  circumstance  that  influenced  the  whole  career 
and  life  of  our  young  friend,  the  newly-arrived  solicitor  ;  for 
whom  let  us  delay  no  longer  to  find  lodgings. 

Colonel  John  Donelson  took  root  in  the  country  and 
flourished  greatly.  Lands,  negroes,  cattle,  horses,  whatever 
was  wealth  in  the  settlement,  he  had  in  greater  abundance 
than  any  other  man.  They  point  out  still,  near  Nashville, 
the  field  he  first  tilled,  and  the  spot  where  he  made  his  won 
derful  escape  from  the  Indians  ;  a  story  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
hearing  one  of  his  grandsons  tell,  but  have  not  the  space  here 
to  repeat.  During  one  of  the  long  winters,  when  an  unex 
pected  influx  of  emigrants  had  reduced  the  stock  of  corn 
alarmingly  low,  Colonel  Donelson  mercifully  moved  off,  with 
all  his  corn-consuming  host,  to  Kentucky,  and  there  lived  till 
the  seasons  of  plenty  returned.  During  this  residence  in  Ken- 
only  by  comparison  with  tbe  more  exposed  part,)  is  covered  generally  with  thick 
and  high  cane,  and  a  heavy  growth  of  large  timber,  and  where  there  happens  to 
be  no  cane,  with  thick  underwood,  which  afford  the  Indians  an  opportunity  of 
lying  days  and  weeks  in  any  and  every  part  of  the  district  in  wait  near  the 
houses,  and  of  doing  injuries  to  the  inhabitants,  when  they  themselves  are  so  hid  or 
secured  that  they  have  no  apprehensions  of  injuries  being  done  in  return ;  and  they 
escape  from  pursuit,  even  though  it  is  immediate.  This  district  has  an  extreme 
frontier  of  at  least  two  hundred  miles." — Putnam's  History  of  Middle  Tennessee 


1788.]       THE     SOLICITOR     FINDS     LODGINGS.          133 

tucky,  his  daughter  Kachel  gave  her  heart  and  hand  to  Lewis 
Robards,  and  the  brave  old  man  returned  to  the  Cumberland 
without  her. 

Many  were  the  adventures  and  the  exploits  of  this  sturdy 
pioneer — this  hero,  who  never  suspected  that  he  was  a  hero. 
Yet  after  so  many  hair-breadth  escapes,  by  flood  and  field,  his 
time  came  at  last.  He  was  in  the  woods  surveying,  far  from 
home.  Two  young  men  who  had  been  with  him  came  along 
and  found  him  near  a  creek,  pierced  by  bullets  ;  whether  the 
bullets  of  the  lurking  savage  or  of  the  white  robber  was  never 
known.  It  was  only  known  that  he  met  a  violent  death  from 
some  ambushed  cowardly  villains,  white  or  red  ;  his  daughter 
Rachel  always  thought  the  former.  She  thought  no  Indians 
could  kill  her  father,  who  knew  their  ways  too  well  to  be 
caught  by  them. 

When  young  Jackson  arrived  at  the  settlement,  he  found 
the  widow  Donelson  living  there  in  a  block-house,  somewhat 
more  commodious  than  any  other  dwelling  in  the  place  ;  for 
she  was  a  notable  housekeeper,  as  well  as  a  woman  of  prop 
erty.  With  her  then  lived  her  daughter  Rachel  and  her 
Kentucky  husband,  Lewis  Robards.  Robards  had  bought 
land  five  miles  from  the  Lick,  and  was  living  with  his  mother- 
in-law  until  the  Indians  should  be  sufficiently  subdued  or 
pacified  to  render  it  safe  to  live  so  far  from  the  settlement. 
Jackson,  soon  after  his  arrival,  went  also  to  live  with  Mrs. 
Donelson  as  a  boarder — an  arrangement  no  less  satisfactory 
to  her  than  to  him.  It  was  a  piece  of  good  fortune  to  her 
to  have  another  man  in  her  spare  cabin  as  a  protector  against 
the  Indians  ;  while  he  had  found  the  best  boarding  place  in 
the  settlement — not  the  least  pleasant  feature  of  it  being 
the  presence  of  the  gay  and  lively  Mrs.  Robards,  the  best 
story-teller,  the  best  dancer,  the  sprightliest  companion,  the 
most  dashing  horsewoman  in  the  western  country. 


134  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1789 

CHAPTER    XII. 

THE     FRONTIER     LAWYER. 

THE  young  solicitor,  immediately  upon  his  arrival  in  the 
western  settlements,  was  astonished  to  find  a  world  of  law 
business  awaiting  him. 

One  would  have  supposed  that  a  community  situated  as 
this  was,  struggling  to  maintain  its  foothold  in  a  remote 
wilderness  swarming  with  hostile  savages,  could  have  dis 
pensed,  for  a  while,  with  the  costly  luxury  of  law  ;  i.  e.,  law 
yer's  law.  But  no.  One  of  the  first  things  done  in  all  the 
Western  settlements  was  the  building  of  a  court  house  and 
jail  ;  and  lawyers,  licensed  or  unlicensed,  were  always  in  wait 
ing  to  occupy  the  one  and  empty  the  other.  In  the  records 
of  the  first  court  ever  held  in  Nashville,  which  was  in  1783, 
occurs  this  entry :  "  The  court  then  proceeded  to  fix  on  a 
place  for  the  building  of  a  court  house  and  prison,  and  agreed 
that,  in  the  present  situation  of  the  settlement,  it  be  at  Nash- 
borough.  Size  of  the  court  house  to  be  eighteen  feet  square, 
with  a  shade  of  twelve  feet  on  one  side  of  the  length  of  the 
house  ;  said  house  to  be  furnished  with  the  necessary  benches, 
bar,  table,  etc.,  fit  for  the  reception  of  the  court.  Also  a 
prison,  fourteen  feet  square,  of  hewed  logs  of  a  foot  square. 
«  *  *  To  be  done  on  the  best  and  most  reasonable  terms, 
and  that  the  same  be  vendued  on  the  lowest  price  that  can 
be  had."* 

These  edifices,  be  it  observed,  were  an  improvement  upon 
similar  structures  in  some  other  parts  of  the  territory,  and 
attest  the  importance  and  public  spirit  of  the  Nashville  set 
tlements.  The  court  house  at  Greeneville,  for  example, 
wherein  the  short-lived  State  of  Franklin  was  debated  and 
voted  into  existence,  was  a  cabin  of  unhewn  logs  roofed  with 
clapboards,  without  floor,  door,  loft  or  window,  light  being 

*  Ramsey's  Tennessee,  page  495. 


1789.]  THE     FRONTIER     LAWYER.  135 

admitted  between  the  logs.  And  it  was  in  court  houses  like 
this — some  a  little  better,  some  not  so  good — that  Andrew 
Jackson  practiced  law  for  nearly  ten  years,  and  laid  the  foun 
dations  of  his  fame  and  fortune. 

Jackson's  arrival,  as  we  have  intimated,  was  most  oppor 
tune.  The  only  licensed  lawyer  in  West  Tennessee  was  en 
gaged  exclusively  in  the  service  of  debtors,  who,  it  seems, 
made  common  cause  against  the  common  enemy,  their  cred 
itors.  Jackson  came  not  as  a  lawyer  merely,  but  as  the 
public  prosecutor,  and  there  was  that  in  his  bearing  which 
gave  assurance  that  he  was  the  man  to  issue  unpopular  writs 
and  give  them  effect.  The  merchants  and  others,  who  could 
not  collect  their  debts,  came  to  him  for  help.  He  undertook 
their  business,  and  executed  it  with  a  promptitude  that 
secured  his  career  at  the  bar  of  Tennessee.  Before  he  had 
been  a  month  in  Nashville,  he  had  issued,  it  is  said,  seventy 
writs  to  delinquent  debtors.  He  was  the  man  wanted.  And 
this  was  the  first  instance  of  a  certain  good  fortune  that 
attended  him  all  through  his  life :  he  was  continually  find 
ing  himself  placed  in  circumstances  calculated  to  call  into 
conspicuous  exercise  the  very  qualities  in  which  he  excelled 
all  mankind. 

It  had  not  been  his  intention  to  settle  in  the  western 
wilderness  ;  but  business  opening  so  well,  and  the  country 
being  evidently  formed  for  the  maintenance  of  a  great  com 
monwealth,  he  was  not  long  in  coming  to  the  determination 
to  make  it  his  future  home.  How  wise  the  choice  was,  no 
one,  familiar  with  Nashville  and  its  vicinity,  need  be  told. 

Such  of  the  old  court  records  of  West  Tennessee  as  have 
escaped  time,  fire  and  vermin,  contain  just  enough  about  An 
drew  Jackson  to  show  that  he  jumped  immediately  into  a 
large  practice.  It  was  customary  then  for  a  lawyer  to  attend 
every  court  held  in  the  State.  Two  months  after  his  arrival 
in  the  western  country  we  find  him  attending  court  in  Sum- 
ner  county,  near  the  Kentucky  border,  a  day's  ride  from 
Nashville.  The  tattered  records  of  Sumner  county  contain 
this  entry  : 


136  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1789. 

"  January  12th,  1789.  Andrew  Jackson,  Esq.,  produced 
his  license  as  an  attorney-at-law  in  court,  and  took  the  oath 
required  by  law." 

Some  debtors  of  his  Nashville  clients,  perhaps,  had  moved 
off  to  Sumner  county,  a  still  newer  settlement,  and  had  for 
gotten  the  old  debts.  The  solicitor  was  upon  them.  Later 
records  of  the  same  county  show  that  he  attended  the  courts 
thereof  regularly  for  many  years.  He  was  the  first  lawyer 
who  ever  practiced  in  that  county.  Another  entry  from  the 
same  records  is  this  : 

"October  6th,  1790.  Andrew  Jackson,  Esq.,  proved  a 
bill  of  sale  from  Hugh  McGary  to  Gasper  Mansker,  for  a 
negro  man,  which  was  0.  K."  [A  common  western  mistake 
for  0.  B.,  which  means  Ordered  Eecorded.  Hence,  perhaps, 
the  saying  "  0.  K."] 

The  records  of  the  quarter  sessions  court  of  Davidson 
county,  the  county  of  which  Nashville  is  the  capital,  show, 
that  at  the  April  term,  1790,  there  were  one  hundred  and 
ninety-two  cases  on  the  two  dockets  (Appearance  docket  and 
Trial  docket)  ;  and  that  Andrew  Jackson  was  employed  as 
counsel  in  forty- two  of  them.  On  one  leaf  of  the  record  of  the 
January  term,  1793,  there  are  thirteen  suits  entered,  mostly 
for  debt,  in  every  one  of  which  Andrew  Jackson  was  employed. 
At  the  April  term  of  the  same  year,  he  was  counsel  in  seventy- 
two  out  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-five  cases.  In  most  of  these, 
he  was  counsel  for  the  defense.  At  the  July  term  of  the 
same  year,  he  was  employed  in  sixty  cases  out  of  one  hun 
dred  and  thirty-five  ;  and  at  the  October  term,  in  sixty-one 
cases  out  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-two.  In  the  four  terms 
of  1794,  there  were  three  hundred  and  ninety-seven  cases  be 
fore  the  same  court,  in  two  hundred  and  twenty-eight  of 
which  Jackson  acted  as  counsel.*  And  during  these  and 
later  years,  he  practiced  at  the  courts  of  Jonesboro,  and  other 
towns  in  East  Tennessee. 

*  Special  Researches  of  Colonel  A.  W.  Putnam,  President  of  Tennessee 
Historical  Society. 


1789.]  THE     FRONTIER     LAWYER.  137 

But  what  was  the  nature  of  these  numerous  suits  ?  Dis 
puted  land  claims  formed  the  staple  of  the  law  practice  in  all 
the  early  western  settlements.  Next  to  these,  cases  of  assault 
and  battery  seem  to  have  been  the  most  numerous.  A  few 
extracts  from  the  old  court  records  of  West  Tennessee  may 
amuse  the  reader  : — 


"  Whereas,  in  an  affray  that  happened  on  the  second  day  of  September, 
1793,  between  Win.  Pillows  and  Abram  Denton,  in  fighting,  the  said  Pil 
lows  bit  off  the  uper  eend  of  Denton's  right  year,  upon  which  sd  Pillows 
come  into  open  court  together  with  Abram  Denton,  and  the  sd  Pillows 
openly  declared  that  he  bit  of  his  year  aforesaid,  without  any  intention  of 
injuring  sd  Denton. 

"  Andw  Wickerham  b'ng  sworn,  sayth  y*  he  saw  Wm.  Hamilton  go  to 
turn  ye  Deft,  out  of  his  house,  on  which  ye  sd  Deft,  resisted ;  &  they  laid 
hold  on  one  anorher  and  fell,  ye  plff.  uppermost :  And  when  they  were 
parted,  he  saw  y*  ye  sd  plff.'  nose  was  bit,  but  saw  no  blows  pass. 

"  Jas.  Buchanan  and  W  rn.  Simpson  corroborated  ye  ab've." 

"  Ezekiel  Smith  of  sd  county  was  summoned  to  ansr  unto  Joel  Stearns, 
a  cornp*  of  assault  and  battery,  to  damage  of  £200.  Whereas  ye  sd  Stearns 
saith  that  he  was  abused  by  sd  Smith,  having  of  him  tied,  whipped  him 
with  switches  on  his  naked  skin — likewise  took  ye  sd  Stearns,  fastened  him 
with  a  cord  round  his  neck,  raised  him  up  to  a  limb  of  a  tree,  till  he  felt 
all  the  pains  that  he  would  have  felt  in  death.  The  first  thing  that  he 
knew  after  that,  he  ye  sd  Stearns,  was  lying  on  ye  ground,  that  ye  sd 
Smith  bid  him  rise — and  that  he  has  made  no  satisfaction  to  ye  sd 
Stearns." 

"  Appeared  Humphrey  Hogan  bound  in  recognizance  at  suit  of  John 
Kitts — for  good  behavior,  &c.  .  .  .  John  Barrow  sworn:  Sayeth, 
Hogan  threatened  he  will  kill  Kitts'  hogs,  if  he  did  not  keep  them  from  his 
door,  and  also  whip  himself.  ...  To  make  friends,  Kitts  agreed  to 
dismiss  recognizance  and  pay  the  costs." 

"  Frederick  Stump  fined  ld  paper  money,  for  taking  the  sixth  part  of 
corn  ground  at  his  mill,  as  toll. — ld  ." 

"  Ordered  that  corn  be  received  for  taxes  at  two  shillings  and  eight- 
pence  per  bushel ;  good  fat  bear  meat,  if  delivered  where  troops  are  sta 
tioned,  four-pence  per  pound;  prime  buffalo  beef,  three-pence;  good 
venison,  if  delivered  as  aforesaid,  nine-pence ;  bacon,  nine-pence ;  dried 
beef,  six-pence  ;  salt,  two  shillings  four-pence  per  pound." 


138  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1789. 

"  State  J  For  stealing  a  pair  of  leather  leggins.  Proof  taken  : 
vs.  \  judgment  passed  that  lie  be  reprimanded,  and  acquitted 

Bazil  Fry.  \  on  paying  costs." 

"  The  grand  jurors  present  Joshua  Baldwin  for  altering  his  name  to 
Joshua  Campbell,  and  Ephraim  Peyton,  for  taking  away,  by  force,  a  mare 
from  Joshua." 

"  I,  John  Irwin,  of  my  free  will  and  accord,  do  hearby  acknoAvledge 
and  certify  the  Raskelly  and  Scandoullous  Report  that  I  have  Raised  and 
Reported  Concearned  Miss  Polly  McFadin,  is  faulse  and  groundless,  and 
that  I  had  no  Right,  Reason  or  Cause  to  Believe  the  same.  Given  under 
my  hand  this  26.  March  1793." 

"The  court  passed  a  resolution  that  Cresar  be  permitted  to  build  a 
house  in  one  corner  or  side  of  the  Public  Lott  for  the  purpose  of  selling 
cakes  and  beer,  etc.,  so  long  as  he  conducts  himself  in  an  orderly  manner 
and  has  permission  from  his  master." 

At  the  July  session  of  the  county  court  of  Davidson  county,  1791, 
"  John  Rains  is  fined  five  shillings,  paper  money,  for  profane  swearing."* 

On  one  occasion,  when  the  log  court  house  at  Nashville 
had  become  exceedingly  unclean  and  out  of  repair,  one  of  the 
lawyers  rose  and  addressed  the  honorable  court  as  follows  : 
:(  May  it  please  your  honors,  it  is  a  rule  of  equity  that  every 
suitor  shall  come  into  court  with  a  clean  shirt-tail.  With 
out  unnecessary  offense  to  the  majesty  of  law,  the  ermine  of 
the  judges,  or  purity  of  anybody,  I  defy  suitor  or  advocate, 
much  more  the  honorable  court,  to  maintain  pure  thoughts 
and  white  linen  in  such  a  sheep-fold  and  pigsty."'  Whereupon 
it  was  "  ordered  that  David  Hay  repair  the  court  house  by 
making  two  doors,  well  fixed  and  hung,  with  three  window 
shutters  well  hung,  and  the  house  well  chinked,  sweeped, 
washed  and  cleansed,  and  the  benches  repaired." 

Such  were  the  scenes  in  which  our  young  lawyer  passed  his 
early  years  of  manhood.  What  with  his  extensive  practice 
and  his  long  journeys,  he  was  the  busiest  of  men.  Half  his 
time,  as  I  conjecture,  must  have  been  spent  in  traveling. 
During  the  first  seven  years  of  his  residence  in  Tennessee,  he 
performed  the  journey  through  the  mountain  wilderness  that 
lay  between  Jonesboro  and  Nashville,  a  distance  of  nearly 

*  All  from  Putnam's  History  of  Middle  Tennessee. 


1789.J  THE     FRONTIER     LAWYER.  139 

two  hundred  miles,  twenty-two  times  ;  and  this  at  a  time 
when  a  man  was  in  peril  of  his  life  from  the  Indians  at  his 
own  front  door. 

It  is  important,  for  more  reasons  than  now  appear,  that 
the  reader  should  understand  the  condition  of  Nashville  and 
West  Tennessee  with  regard  to  the  hostile  Indians  at  the 
South.  Take  one  fact :  from  the  year  1780  to  1794,  the 
Indians  killed,  within  five  or  seven  miles  of  Nashville,  one 
person  in  about  every  ten  days.  The  number  killed  during 
the  year  1787,  the  year  before  Jackson's  arrival,  was  thirty- 
three.  From  the  catalogue  of  Indian  murders  in  Hay  wood's 
History  of  Tennessee  I  copy  a  few  items  : — 

"June  2d,  1791,  the  Indians  killed  John  Thompson  in  his  own  corn 
field  within  five  miles  of  Nashville.  June  14th,  they  killed  John  Gibson 
and  wounded  McMoon  in  Gibson's  field,  eight  miles  from  Nashville.  They 
killed  Benjamin  Kirdendall  in  his  own  house  in  Sumner  county,  and  plun 
dered  his  house  of  every  thing  the  Indians  could  use.  In  June,  1791, 
three  travelers  from  Natchez  to  Nashville  were  found  dead  on  the  trace 
near  the  mouth  of  Duck  river;  there  were  eight  in  company,  and  only 
two  came  in.  On  the  3d  of  July,  1791,  Thomas  Fletcher  and  two  other 
men  were  killed  on  the  north  side  of  Cumberland;  their  heads  were'  en 
tirely  skinned.  In  the  same  month  a  man  was  killed  within  a  hundred 
and  fifty  yards  of  Major  Wilson's,  on  the  public  road,  as  he  was  riding  up 
to  his  house.  On  the  12th,  Thomas  White  was  killed  in  the  Cumberland 
mountains.  January  19,  1792,  the  Indians  killed  Robert  and  William 
Sevier.  March,  1792,  the  Indians  attacked  the  house  of  Mr.  Thompson 
within  seven  miles  of  Nashville,  killed  and  scalped  the  old  man,  his  wife, 
his  son  and  a  daughter,  and  made  prisoners  Mrs.  Caffrey,  her  son,  a  small 
boy  and  Miss  Thompson.  March  5th,  1792,  twenty-five  Indians  attacked 
Brown's  Station,  eight  miles  from  Nashville,  and  killed  four  boys.  On  the 
6th,  they  burnt  Dunham's  Station.  On  the  12th,  they  killed  Mr.  Murray 
on  his  own  plantation,  at  the  mouth  of  Stone's  river  (seven  miles  from 
Nashville).  April  5th,  they  killed  Mrs.  Redcliff  and  three  children.  On 
the  8th,  they  killed  Benjamin  Williams  and  party,  consisting  of  eight  men, 
in  the  heart  of  the  Cumberland  settlements.  On  the  24th  of  May,  1792, 
General  Robertson  and  his  son  Jonathan  Robertson  were  at  or  near  the 
Robertson  Lick,  half  a  mile  from  his  station,  where  they  were  fired  upon 
by  a  party  of  Indians.  The  General  was  wounded  in  the  arm,  and  thrown 
by  his  horse  among  the  Indians.  His  son  was  wounded  in  the  hip,  but 
seeing  the  dangerous  situation  in  which  his  father  was,  he  dismounted, 


140  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1789. 

though  so  badly  wounded,  and  fired  on  them  as  they  rushed  toward  his 
father.  This  checked  them  for  a  moment,  and  gave  time  to  the  General 
to  get  off,  and  both  got  safely  into  the  station.  December  29th,  John 
Haggard  was  killed  and  scalped  six  miles  from  Nashville ;  twelve  balls 
were  shot  into  him.  His  wife  had  been  killed  by  the  Indians  in  the  sum 
mer,  and  he  left  five  small  children  in  poverty  and  wretchedness." 

And  so  on  for  many  pages  ! 

Felix  Grundy,  who  passed  his  childhood  amid  these  perils, 
once  alluded  to  them  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  when 
he  spoke  with  touching  eloquence.  "  I  was  too  young,"  said 
he,  "  to  participate  in  these  dangers  and  difficulties,  but  I 
can  rememher  when  death  was  in  almost  every  bush,  and 
every  thicket  concealed  an  ambuscade.  If  I  am  asked  to 
trace  my  memory  back,  and  name  the  first  indelible  impres 
sion  it  received,  it  would  be  the  sight  of  my  eldest  brother 
bleeding  and  dying  under  the  wounds  inflicted  by  the  toma 
hawk  and  scalping  knife.  Another,  and  another,  went  in  the 
same  way  !  I  have  seen  a  widowed  mother  plundered  of  her 
whole  property  in  a  single  night ;  from  affluence  and  ease  re 
duced  to  poverty  in  a  moment,  and  compelled  to  labor  with 
her  own  hands  to  support  and  educate  her  last  and  favorite 
son — him  who  now  addresses  you.  Sir,  the  ancient  suffer 
ings  of  the  West  were  great.  I  know  it.  I  need  turn  to  no 
document  to  teach  me  what  they  were.  They  are  written 
upon  my  memory — a  part  of  them  upon  my  heart.  Those 
of  us  who  are  here  are  but  the  remnant,  the  wreck,  of  large 
families  lost  in  effecting  the  early  settlement  of  the  West. 
As  I  look  around,  I  see  the  monuments  of  former  suffering 
and  woe.  Ask  my  colleague  what  he  remembers  ?  He  will 
tell  you  that  while  his  father  was  in  pursuit  of  one  party  of 
Indians,  another  band  came  and  murdered  two  of  his  brothers. 
Inquire  of  yonder  gentleman  from  Arkansas  what  became  of 
his  brother-in-law,  Oldham  ?  He  will  tell  you  that  he  went 
out  to  battle,  but  never  returned.  Ask  that  representative 
from  Kentucky  where  is  his  uncle,  the  gallant  Hardin  ?  He 
will  answer  that  he  was  intrepid  enough  to  carry  a  flag  of 
truce  to  the  hostile  savages ;  they  would  not  recognize  the 


1789.]  THE     FRONTIER     LAWYER.  141 

protection  which  the  flag  of  peace  threw  around  him,  and  he 
was  slain.  If  I  turn  to  my  old  classmate  and  friend,  now  a 
grave  and  potent  Senator,  I  am  reminded  of  a  mother's  cour 
age  and  intrepidity  in  the  son  whom  she  rescued  from  savage 
hands,  when  in  the  very  grasp  of  death." * 

Many  an  old  man  in  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  still  lin 
gers  on  this  side  of  the  grave,  who  speaks  in  the  same  strain, 
and  recounts  similar  scenes. 

The  earliest  letter  of  Jackson's  that  I  have  been  able  to 
discover,  dated  February  13th,  1789,  the  fourth  month  of  his 
residence  at  Nashville,  relates  to  the  Indian  troubles.  It  was 
addressed  to  General  Daniel  Smith,  a  leading  man  in  the 
West  then  and  long  afterwards.  The  letter  is  that  of  a  man 
unused  to  composition,  as  the  reader  will  observe  : — 

ANDREW    JACKSON    TO    GENERAL    DANIEL    SMITH. 

"SiR: — I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  Captain  Fargo  yesterday,  who  put 
me  under  obligations  of  seeing  you  this  day,  but  as  the  weather  seems  dull 
and  heavy,  it  prevents  my  coming  up:  but  I  commit  to  you  in  this  small 
piece  of  paper  the  business  he  wants  with  you  :  he  expresses  a  great  friend 
ship  for  the  welfare  and  harmony  of  this  country :  he  wishes  to  become  a 
citizen  and  trade  to  this  country  by  which  means,  and  through  you  I  think 
we  can  have  a  lasting  peace  with  the  Indians :  he  wishes  you  to  write  to 
the  Governor  informing  him  the  desire  of  a  commercial  treaty  with  that 
country.  He  will  then  importune  the  Governor  for  a  privilege  or  permit 
to  trade  to  this  country,  which  he  is  sure  to  obtain,  as  he  is  related  to  his 
Excellency.  Then  he  will  show  the  propriety  of  having  a  peace  with  the 
Indians  for  the  purpose  of  the  benefit  of  the  trade  of  this  country :  and 
also  show  the  Governor  the  respect  this  country  honors  him  with  by  giv 
ing  it  his  name  :t  he  bears  the  commission  of  Captain  under  the  King  of 
Spain,  which  is  an  honorable  title  in  that  country,  and  can,  in  my  opinion, 
do  a  great  deal  for  this ;  and  hope?  you  will  do  him  the  honor  as  to  see 
him  upon  this  occasion  before  he  sets  out  for  the  Orleans,  and  I  think  it 
the  only  immediate  way  to  obtain  a  peace  with  the  Savage.  I  hope  you 
will  consider  Lb  well,  and  give  me  a  few  lines  upon  the  occasion  by 
Colonel  Donelson,  who  hands  you  this,  as  I  have  the  good  of  this  country 

*  Democratic  Keview,  voL  ill,  page  162. 

f  That  pa.  t  of  Tennessee  was  called  Mero  District,  after  the  Spanish  gov 
ernor,  Mero. 

VOL.  I. 10 


142  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1789 

at  heart,  and  I  hope  also  if  you  will  do  Mr.  Fargo  the  honor  as  to  go  and 
see  him  upon  the  occasion,  as  you  go  down  you  will  give  me  a  call,  as  I 
I  think  I  could  give  you  some  satisfaction  on  this  subject.  This,  sir,  from 
your  very  Humble  Servant, 

ANDREW  JACKSON.* 

Jackson  does  not  appear  to  advantage  on  paper  at  this 
period.  He  was  more  at  home  in  the  wilderness,  eluding  the 
Indians'  vigilance,  or  pursuing  them  to  their  retreats.  He 
had  rare  adventures  during  those  long  horseback  rides  from 
court  house  to  court  house — -journeys  that  sometimes  kept 
him  camping  out  in  the  woods  twenty  successive  nights. 
The  shorter  journeys  he  occasionally  performed  alone,  pro 
tected  only  by  the  keenness  of  his  eye  and  ear,  passing 
through  regions  where  he  dared  not  kill  a  deer  or  light  a  fire 
for  fear  the  flames  or  the  report  of  his  rifle  should  convey 
the  knowledge  of  his  presence  to  some  hidden  savage.  The 
long  journeys,  from  the  Cumberland  to  Jonesboro  and  Knox- 
ville,  he  often  made  in  company  with  the  guard  that  turned 
out  to  conduct  parties  of  emigrants  to  the  western  settlements, 
and  sometimes  with  a  smaller  party  of  lawyers  and  clients. 

One  lonely  night  passed  in  the  woods  was  very  vividly 
remembered  by  him.  He  came,  soon  after  dark,  to  a  creek 
that  had  been  swollen  by  the  rains  into  a  roaring  torrent. 
The  night  was  as  dark  as  pitch,  and  the  rain  fell  heavily. 
To  have  attempted  the  ford  would  have  been  suicidal,  nor 
did  he  dare  to  light  a  fire,  nor  even  let  his  horse  move  about 
to  browse.  So  he  took  off  the  saddle,  and,  placing  it  at  the 
foot  of  a  tree,  sat  upon  it,  wrapped  in  his  blanket  and  hold 
ing  his.  rifle  in  one  hand  and  his  bridle  in  the  other.  All 
through  the  night  he  sat  motionless  and  silent,  listening  to 
the  noise  of  the  flood  and  the  pattering  of  the  rain  drops 
upon  the  leaves.  When  the  day  dawned,  he  saddled  his 
horse  again,  mounted,  swam  the  creek,  and  continued  his 
journey. 

On  his  way  home  from  Jonesboro  court,  with  only  three 

*  MSS.  of  Historical  Societv  of  Tennessee. 


1789.]  THE      FRONTIER     LAWYER.  143 

companions,  he  reached,  the  river  Amory  one  evening  at  the 
point  where  it  gushes  out  of  the  Cumberland  mountains,  and 
saw  on  the  opposite  bank  the  small,  smouldering  fires  of  a 
party  of  hostile  Indians.  Jackson,  assuming  the  command, 
directed  his  comrades  to  abandon  the  road  at  different  points, 
so  as  to  leave  no  trace  behind,  and  then  led  them  into  the 
mountains  along  the  banks  of  the  stream.  All  night  they 
traveled,  guided  only  by  the  noise  of  the  waters,  and,  at 
dawn  of  day,  came  to  the  edge  of  the  river  with  the  intention 
of  crossing.  The  March  rains  had  made  it  a  rushing  flood  ; 
and  the  nearness  of  the  enemy  rendered  the  keeping  of  their 
powder  dry  a  matter  of  the  utmost  importance.  So,  instead 
of  plunging  in,  in  the  usual  style  of  the  backwoods,  they 
made  a  raft,  upon  which  they  placed  all  their  effects,  except 
their  horses,  which  were  to  swim  over  afterward.  Jackson 
and  one  of  his  companions  jumped  upon  the  raft  and  pushed 
off,  leaving  two  others  upon  the  bank  with  the  horses.  Rude 
oars  had  been  rigged  to  the  sides  of  the  raft,  at  which  the  two 
men  tugged  away,  with  their  backs  toward  the  head  of  the 
stream.  The  men  on  the  shore  perceived  that  the  raft  was 
carried  swiftly  down  the  stream,  and  cried  out  to  Jackson  to 
return.  He,  not  aware  of  his  swift  downward  progress,  did 
not  heed  their  outcries,  but  strove  with  all  his  might  to  gain 
the  opposite  bank.  At  length,  discovering  that  the  raft  was 
nearing  the  edge  of  a  fall,  he  attempted  to  return.  He 
strained  every  muscle  and  nerve  in  his  efforts  to  bring  the 
soggy  and  lumbering  craft  to  the  shore  he  had  left,  along 
which  his  two  friends  were  running  to  keep  abreast  of  him. 
In  vain.  The  raft  was  already  rushing  toward  the  fall  with 
accelerated  and  accelerating  swiftness,  when  Jackson  tore  one 
of  the  long  oars  away  from  its  fastening,  and,  bracing  himself 
in  the  hinder  part  of  the  raft,  held  out  one  end  of  the  oar  to 
the  men  on  shore.  Luckily,  they  caught  it,  and  were  able  to 
draw  them  in  to  the  bank. 

Then  his  comrade  reproached  him  for  not  returning  when 
they  had  first  called  out.  His  reply  was  very  characteristic, 
and  explains  much  in  his  remarkable  career  : 


144  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1789. 

"A  miss  is  as  good  as  a  mile.  You  see  how  near  1  can 
graze  danger.  Come  on,  and  I  will  save  you  yet."* 

He  did  so.  They  resumed  their  march  up  the  stream, 
spent  a  second  night  supperless  in  the  woods,  found  a  ford 
the  next  morning,  crossed,  continued  their  journey,  and  saw 
the  Indians  no  more. 

Once,  as  he  was  about  to  cross  the  wilderness,  he  reached 
the  rendezvous  too  late,  and  found  that  his  party  had  started. 
It  was  evening,  and  he  had  ridden  hard,  but  there  was  no 
hope  of  catching  up,  unless  he  started  immediately  and  trav 
eled  all  night.  With  a  single  guide  he  took  the  r£>ad,  and 
came  up  to  the  camp  fires  just  before  daylight ;  but  his  friends 
had  already  marched.  Continuing  his  journey,  he  was  startled 
when  daylight  came,  to  discover  the  tracks  of  Indians  in  the 
road,  who  were  evidently  following  the  travelers.  Equally 
evident  was  it  to  the  practised  eyes  of  these  men  of  the  woods, 
that  the  Indians  outnumbered  the  whites.  They  pressed  for 
ward,  and  paused  not  till  the  tracks  showed  that  the  enemy 
were  but  a  few  minutes  in  advance  of  them.  Then,  the  guide 
refusing  to  proceed,  Jackson  divided  the  stock  of  provisions 
equally  with  him,  saw  him  take  his  way  homeward,  and  kept 
on  himself  toward  the  Indians,  resolved,  at  all  hazards,  to 
save  or  succor  hi&  friends.  At  length  he  came  to  a  place 
where  the  Indians  had  left  the  path,  and  taken  to  the  woods, 
with  the  design,  as  Jackson  thought,  of  getting  ahead  of  the 
white  party,  and  lying  in  ambush  for  them.  He  pushed  on 
with  all  speed,  and  reached  his  friends  before  dark,  just  after 
they  had  crossed  a  deep,  half-frozen  river,  and  were  drying 
their  clothes  by  their  camp  fires.  He  told  his  news.  The 
march  was  instantly  resumed.  All  that  night  and  the  next 
day  they  kept  on  their  way,  not  daring  to  rest  or  halt,  and 
reached  toward  evening  the  cabins  of  a  company  of  hunters, 
of  whom  they  asked  shelter  for  the  night.  The  boon  was 
churlishly  refused,  and  they  marched  on  in  the  teeth  of  a 
driving  storm  of  wind  and  snow.  They  ventured  to  encamp 

*  Kendall's  Life  of  Jackson-,  p.  8& 


1789.]  THE     FRONTIER     LAWYER.  145 

at  length.  Jackson,  who  had  not  closed  his  eyes  for  sixty 
hours,  wrapped  himself  in  his  blanket,  and  slept  soundly  till 
daylight,  when  he  awoke  to  find  himself  buried  in  snow  to 
the  depth  of  six  inches.  The  party  of  Indians,  meanwhile, 
had  pursued  unrelentingly,  until  reaching  the  huts  of  the  in 
hospitable  hunters,  they  murdered  every  man  of  them,  and, 
satisfied  with  this  exploit,  left  the  travelers  to  complete  their 
journey  unmolested. 

We  have  seen  above  that  no  less  a  person  than  General 
Kobertson,  the  wise  and  heroic  founder  of  the  Cumberland 
settlements,  was  attacked  and  wounded,  in  his  own  fields,  by 
the  Indians.  Jackson  was  one  of  the  party  who  pursued  the 
savages  on  that  occasion  into  their  fastnesses.  With  four 
teen  companions,  he  went  ten  miles  into  a  trackless  cane- 
brake,  fell  upon  the  Indian  camp  at  break  of  day,  put  them 
to  flight  without  the  loss  of  a  man,  and  captured  their 
weapons. 

This  it  was  to  be  a  pioneer  lawyer  in  Tennessee. 

Two  years  passed  after  Jackson's  arrival  at  Nashville  be 
fore  any  thing  of  great  importance  occurred  to  him.  He 
performed  his  journeys,  attended  his  courts,  gained  and  lost 
his  causes,  grew  in  the  esteem  of  his  fellow-citizens,  and 
.struck  down  various  and  vigorous  roots  into  his  adopted  soil. 


CHAPTER     XIII. 

MARRIAGE     OF     THE     SOLICITOR. 

IN  Virginia,  in  the  olden  time^  if  a  man,  convinced  of  his 
wife's  infidelity,  desired  to  be  divorced  from  her,  he  was 
obliged  to  procure  an  act  of  the  legislature  authorizing  an 
investigation  of  the  charge  before  a  jury,  and  pronouncing 
the  marriage  bond  dissolved,  provided  that  jury  found  her 
guilty. 


146  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1791. 

In  the  winter  of  1790-1,  Lewis  Kobards,  of  Kentucky 
(originally  part  of  Virginia),  the  husband  of  the  beautiful 
and  vivacious  Kachel  Donelson,  appeared  before  the  Legisla 
ture  of  Virginia  with  a  declaration,  to  the  effect  that  his 
wife  Kachel  had  deserted  him,  and  had  lived,  and  was  living, 
in  adultery  with  another  man,  to  wit,  Andrew  Jackson, 
attorney-at-law.  Whereupon,  the  Legislature  of  Virginia 
passed  an  act,  entitled,  "  An  Act  concerning  the  marriage  of 
Lewis  Robards,"  of  which  the  following  is  a  copy  : — 

"  Sect.  1. — Be  it  enacted  by  the  General  Assembly,  That  it  shall  and 
may  be  lawful  for  Lewis  Robards  to  sue  out  of  the  office  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  district  of  Kentucky,  a  writ  against  Rachel  Robards,  which 
writ  shall  be  framed  by  the  clerk,  and  express  the  nature  of  the  case,  and 
shall  be  published  for  eight  weeks  successively,  in  the  Kentucky  Gazette ; 
whereupon  the  plaintiff  may  file  his  declaration  in  the  same  cause,  and  the 
defendant  may  appear  and  plead  to  issue,  in  which  case,  or  if  she  does  not 
appear  within  two  months  after  such  publication,  it  shall  be  set  for  trial  by 
the  clerk  on  some  day  in  the  succeeding  court,  but  may,  for  good  cause 
shown  to  the  court,  be  continued  until  the  succeeding  term. 

"  Sect.  2. — Commissions  to  take  depositions,  and  subpoenas  to  summon 
witnesses,  shall  issue  as  in  other  cases. 

"  Sect.  3. — Notice  of  taking  depositions,  published  in  the  Kentucky 
Gazette,  shall  be  sufficient. 

"  Sect.  4. — A  jury  shall  be  summoned,  who  shall  be  sworn  well  and 
truly  to  inquire  into  the  allegations  contained  in  the  declaration,  or  to  try 
the  issue  joined,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  shall  find  a  verdict  according  to 
the  usual  mode ;  and  if  the  jury,  in  case  of  issue  joined,  shall  find  for  the 
plaintiff,  or  in  case  of  inquiry  into  the  truth  of  the  allegations  contained  in 
the  declaration,  shall  find  in  substance,  that  the  defendant  hath  deserted 
the  plaintiff,  and  that  she  hath  lived  in  adultery  with  another  man  since 
such  desertion,  the  said  verdict  shall  be  recorded,  and,  THEREUPON,  the  mar 
riage  between  the  said  Lewis  Robards  and  Rachel  shall  be  totally  dissolved."* 

Having  obtained  this  act,  Robards  let  the  matter  rest  for 
two  years.  The  following  transcript  from  the  records  of 
Mercer  county,  Kentucky,  shows  the  final  result  of  his  pro 
ceedings  :  "At  a  court  of  Quarter  Sessions,  held  for  Mercer 
county,  at  the  court  house  in  Harrodsburgh,  on  the  27th 
day  of  September,  1793,  this  day  came  the  plaintiff  by  his 

*  Henning's  Statues  at  large,  vol.  12,  p.  227. 


1791.]  MARRIAGE     OF      THE     SOLICITOR.  147 

attorney,  and  thereupon  came  also  a  jury,  to  wit :  James 
Bradsbery,  Thomas  Smith,  Gabriel  Slaughter,  John  Light- 
foot,  Samuel  Work,  Harrison  Davis,  John  Kay,  Obediah 
Wright,  John  Miles,  John  Means,  Joseph  Thomas,  and  Ben 
jamin  Sanless,  who  being  elected,  tried,  and  sworn,  well  and 
truly  to  inquire  into  the  allegation  in  the  plaintiff's  declara 
tion,  specified  upon  oath,  do  say,  that  the  defendant,  Rachel 
Robards,  hath  .deserted  the  plaintiff,  Lewis  Robards,  and 
hath,  and  doth,  still  live  in  adultery  with  another  man.  It 
is  therefore  considered  by  the  court  that  the  marriage  be 
tween  the  plaintiff  and  the  defendant  be  dissolved." 

These  are  the  naked  facts  of  the  case — the  lying  facts  of 
the  case.  The  most  chaste  of  women,  and  one  of  the  few 
irreproachable  public  men  of  his  day,  are  recorded  adulterers ; 
and  what  is  most  remarkable,  the  record  is  correct.  Rachel 
Robards  did  run  away  from  her  husband,  and  did  live  with 
Andrew  Jackson  for  the  space  of  two  years  before  she  was 
divorced.  The  explanation  of  this  mystery  can  be  best  given 
in  the  words  of  the  late  Judge  John  Overton,  of  Tennessee, 
who  saw  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  intimacy  between  Jack 
son  and  Mrs.  Robards,  and  was  personally  cognizant  of  the 
events  which  grew  out  of  it.  His  statement  is  undoubtedly 
correct  in  all  the  important  particulars.  If  in  any  respect  it 
falls  short  of  the  truth,  it  is  in  describing  the  intercourse  be 
tween  Jackson  and  Robards.  Jackson  was  no  great  philoso 
pher.  It  is  extremely  likely  that  his  conversations  with  the 
jealous  husband  were  not  characterized  by  that  moderation 
of  statement  and  demeanor  which  might  be  inferred  from  a 
hasty  reading  of  Judge  Overton's  narrative.  In  fairness  it 
should  be  mentioned,  that  Overtones  statement  was  prepared 
and  published  in  1827,  when  Jackson  was  a  candidate  for  the 
presidency.  In  fairness,  too,  it  should  be  added  that  a  gentle 
man*  of  high  consideration  in  Tennessee  spent  months  in  inves 
tigating  this  single  affair,  and  accumulated  a  mass  of  evidence 
in  support  of  this  version  of  it,  which  demonstrates  its  truth. 

*  Major  William  B.  Lewis,  of  Nashville. 


148  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1791 

JUDGE  OVERTON'S  NARRATIVE. 

"  In  the  fall  of  1787, 1  became  a  boarder  in  the  family  of  Mrs.  Robards, 
the  mother  of  Lewis  Robards,  in  Mercer  county,  Kentucky.  Captain 
Robards  and  his  wife  then  lived  with  old  Mrs.  Robards. 

"  I  had  not  lived  there  many  weeks  before  I  understood  that  Captain 
Robards  and  his  wife  lived  very  unhappily,  on  account  of  his  being  jealous 
of  Mr.  Short.  My  brother,  who  was  a  boarder,  informed  me  that  great 
uneasiness  had  existed  in  the  family  for  some  time  before  my  arrival. 
As  he  had  the  confidence  and  good  will  of  all  parties,  a  portion  of  his  con 
fidence  fell  to  my  share,  particularly  the  old  lady's,  than  whom,  perhaps,  a 
more  amiable  woman  never  lived.  The  uneasiness  between  Captain  Rob 
ards  and  lady  continued  to  increase,  and  with  it  great  distress  of  the 
mother,  and  considerably  with  the  family  generally;  until  early  in  the  year 
1788,  as  well  as  now  recollected,  I  understood  from  the  old  lady,  and  per 
haps  others  of  the  family,  that  her  son  Lewis  had  written  to  Mrs.  Robards' 
mother,  the  widow  Donelson,  requesting  that  she  would  take  her  home,  as 
he  did  not  intend  to  live  with  her  any  longer.  Certain  it  is,  that  Mrs. 
Robards'  brother,  Samuel  Donelson,  came  up  to  carry  her  down  to  her 
mother's,  and  my  impression  is,  in  the  fall  or  summer  of  1788.  I  was  pres 
ent  when  Mr.  Samuel  Donelson  arrived  at  Mrs.  Robards',  and  when  he 
started  away  with  his  sister;  and  my  clear  and  distinct  recollection  is,  that 
it  was  said  to  be  a  final  separation  at  the  instance  of  Captain  Robards ;  for 
I  well  recollect  the  distress  of  old  Mrs.  Robards,  on  account  of  her  daughter- 
in-law  Rachel  going  away,  and  on  account  of  the  separation  that  was 
about  to  take  place,  together  with  the  circumstance  of  the  old  lady's  em 
bracing  her  affectionately.  In  unreserved  conversations  with  me,  the  old 
lady  always  blamed  her  son  Lewis,  and  took  the  part  of  her  daughter- 
in-law. 

"  During  my  residence  in  Mrs.  Robards'  family,  I  do  not  recollect  to 
have  heard  any  of  the  family  censure  young  Mrs.  Robards,  on  account  of 
the  difference  between  her  husband  and  herself;  if  they  thought  otherwise, 
it  was  unknown  to  me ;  but  recollect  frequently  to  have  heard  the  old  lady 
and  Captain  Jouett,  who  married  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  family,  at 
that  time,  express  the  most  favorable  sentiments  of  her. 

"  Having  finished  my  studies  in  the  winter  of  '88-9,  it  was  deter 
mined  to  fix  my  residence  in  the  country  now  called  West  Tennessee. 
Previously  to  my  departure  from  Mrs.  Robards',  the  old  lady  earnestly 
entreated  me  to  use  my  exertions  to  get  her  son  Lewis  and  daughter-in- 
law  Rachel  to  live  happily  together.  ;'-*: 

"  Their  separation  for  a  considerable  time  had  occasioned  her  great  un 
easiness,  as  she  appeared  to  be  much  attached  to  her  daughter-in-law,  and 
she  to  her  Captain  Lewis  Robards  appeared  to  be  unhappy,  and  the  old  lady 


1791.]  MARRIAGE     OF     THE     SOLICITOR.  149 

told  me  ne  regretted  what  had  taken  place,  and  wished  to  be  reconciled  to  his 
wife.  Before  I  would  agree  to  concern  myself  in  the  matter,  I  determined 
to  ascertain  Captain  Robards'  disposition  from  himself,  and  took  occasion 
to  converse  with  him  on  the  subject,  when  he  assured  me  of  his  regret 
respecting  what  had  passed ;  that  he  was  convinced  his  suspicions  were 
unfounded;  that  he  wished  to  live  with  his  wife,  and  requested  that  I 
would  use  my  exertions  to  restore  harmony. 

"I  told  him  I  would  undertake  it,  provided  he  would  throw  aside  all 
nonsensical  notions  about  jealousy,  for  which  I  was  convinced  there  was 
no  ground,  and  treat  his  wife  kindly  as  other  men.  He  assured  me  it 
should  be  so ;  and  it  is  my  impression  now,  that  I  received  a  message  from 
old  Mrs.  Robards  to  Mrs.  Lewis  Robards,  which  I  delivered  to  her  on  my 
arrival  at  her  mother's,  where  I  found  her  some  time  in  the  month  of 
February  or  March,  1789.  The  situation  of  the  country  induced  me  to 
solicit  Mrs.  Donelson  to  board  me,  good  accommodations  and  boarding  being 
rarely  to  be  met  with,  to  which  she  readily  assented. 

"Mr.  A.  Jackson  had  studied  the  law  at  Salisbury,  N.  C.,  as  I  under 
stood,  and  had  arrived  in  this  country  in  company  with  Judge  McNairy,  Ben- 
net,  Searcy,  and  perhaps  David  Allison,  all  lawyers  seeking  their  fortunes, 
more  than  a  month  or  two  before  my  arrival.  Whether  Mr.  Jackson  was 
at  Mrs.  Douelson's  when  I  first  got  there  in  March,  1789,  I  can  not  say ;  if 
he  was,  it  must  have  been  but  a  little  time.  My  impression  now  is  that 
he  was  not  living  there,  and  having  just  arrived,  I  introduced  him  into  the 
family  as  a  boarder,  after  becoming  acquainted  with  him.  So  it  was  we 
commenced  boarding  there  about  the  same  time;  Jackson  and  myself, 
our  friends  and  clients,  occupying  one  cabin,  and  the  family  another,  a  few 
steps  from  it. 

"  Soon  after  my  arrival,  I  had  frequent  conversations  with  Mrs.  Lewis 
Robards,  on  the  subject  of  living  happily  with  her  husband.  She,  with 
much  sensibility,  assured  me  that  no  effort  to  do  so  should  be  wanting  on 
her  part;  and  I  communicated  the  result  to  Captain  Robards  and  his 
mother,  from  both  of  whom  I  received  congratulations  and  thanks. 

%'  Captain  Robards  had  previously  purchased  a  preemption  in  this  coun 
try  on  the  south  side  of  Cumberland  river,  in  Davidson  county,  about  five 
miles  from  where  Mrs.  Donelson  then  lived.  In  the  arrangement  for  a 
reunion  between  Captain  Robards  and  his  wife,  I  understood  it  was  agreed 
that  Captain  Robards  was  to  live  in  this  country  instead  of  Kentucky ; 
that  until  it  was  safe  to  go  on  his  own  land,  which  was  yearly  expected, 
he  and  his  wife  were  to  live  at  Mrs.  Donelson's.  Captain  Robards  became 
reunited  to  his  wife  some  time  in  the  year  1788  or  1789.  Both  Mr.  Jack 
son  and  myself  boarded  in  the  family  of  Mrs.  Donelson — lived  in  the  cabin 
room,  and  slept  in  the  same  bed.  As  young  men  of  the  same  pursuits 
and  profession,  with  but  few  others  in  the  country  with  whom  to  associate, 


150  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1791. 

besides  sharing,  as  we  frequently  did,  common  clangers,  such  an  intimacy 
ensued  as  might  reasonably  be  expected. 

"  Not  many  months  elapsed  before  Robards  became  jealous  of  Jackson, 
which,  I  felt  confident,  was  without  the  least  ground.  Some  of  his  irrita 
ting  conversations  on  this  subject,  with  his  wife,  I  heard  amidst  the  tears 
of  herself  and  her  mother,  who  were  greatly  distressed.  I  urged  to  Ro 
bards  the  unmanliness  of  his  conduct,  after  the  pains  I  had  taken  to  produce 
harmony,  as  a  mutual  friend  of  both  families,  and  my  honest  conviction  that 
his  suspicions  were  groundless.  These  remonstrances  seemed  not  to  have 
the  desired  effect.  As  much  commotion  and  unhappiness  prevailed  in  the 
family  as  in  that  of  Mrs.  Robards  in  Kentucky.  At  length  I  communicated 
to  Jackson  the  unpleasant  situation  of  living  in  a  family  where  there  was 
so  much  disturbance,  and  concluded  by  telling  him  that  we  would  endeavor 
to  get  some*  other  place.  To  this  he  readily  assented ;  but  where  to  go 
we  did  not  know.  Being  conscious  of  his  innocence,  he  said  he  would 
talk  to  Eobards. 

"  What  passed  between  Captain  Robards  and  Jackson,  I  do  not  know, 
as  I  was  absent  somewhere,  not  now  recollected,  when  the  conversation 
and  results  took  place,  but  returned  soon  afterward.  The  whole  affair  was 
related  to  me  by  Mrs.  Donelson,  the  mother  of  Mrs.  Robards,  and,  as  well 
as  I  recollect,  by  Jackson  himself.  The  substance  of  their  account  was, 
that  Mr.  Jackson  met  Captain  Robards  near  the  orchard  fence,  and  began 
mildly  to  remonstrate  with  him  respecting  the  injustice  he  had  done  his 
wife,  as  well  as  himself.  In  a  little  time  Robards  became  violently  angry 
and  abusive,  and  threatened  to  whip  Jackson ;  made  a  show  of  doing  so, 
etc.  Jackson  told  him  he  had  not  bodily  strength  to  fight  him,  nor  would 
he  do  so,  feeling  conscious  of  his  innocence,  and  retired  to  his  cabin,  telling 
him  at  the  same  time  that,  if  he  insisted  on  fighting,  he  would  give  hifri 
gentlemanly  satisfaction,  or  words  to  that  effect.  Upon  Jackson's  return 
out  of  the  house,  Captain  Robards  said  he  did  not  care  for  him  nor  his 
wife — abusing  them  both;  that  he  was  determined  not  to  live  with  Mrs 
Robards.  Jackson  retired  from  the  family,  and  went  to  live  at  Mansker's 
station.  Captain  Robards  remained  several  months  with  his  wife,  and 
then  went  to  Kentucky  in  company  with  Mr.  Thomas  Cruthers  and  prob 
ably  some  other  persons. 

"  Soon  after  this  affair  Mrs.  Robards  went  to  live  at  Colonel  Hay's, 
who  married  her  sister.  After  a  short  absence  I  returned  to  live  at  Atrs. 
Donelson's,  at  her  earnest  entreaty — every  family  then  desiring  the  associ 
ation  of  male  friends  as  a  protection  against  the  Indians.  This  took  place, 
to  the  best  of  my  recollection,  in  the  spring  of  1790. 

"  Some  time  in  the  fall  following  there  was  a  report  afloat  that  Captain 
Robards  intended  to  come  down  and  take  his  wife  to  Kentucky.  Whence 
the  report  originated  I  do  not  now  recollect,  but  it  created  great  uneasiness 


1791.]         MARRIAGE     OF     THE     SOLICITOR.  151 

both  with  Mrs.  Donelson  and  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Robards — the  latter  of 
whom  was  much  distressed,  as  she  was  convinced,  after  two  fair  trials, 
as  she  said,  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  li ve  with  Captain  Robards  ;  and 
of  this  opinion  was  I,  with  all  those  I  conversed  with  who  were  acquainted 
with  the  circumstances.  Some  time  afterward,  during  the  winter  of  1791, 
Mrs.  Donelson  told  me  of  her  daughter's  intention  to  go  down  the  river  to 
Natchez,  to  some  of  their  friends,  in  order  to  keep  out  of  the  way  of  Cap 
tain  Robards,  as  she  said  he  had  threatened  to  "  haunt  her."  Knowing, 
as  I  did,  Captain  Robards'  unhappy  jealous  disposition,  and  his  temper 
growing  out  of  it,  I  thought  she  was  right  to  keep  out  of  the  way,  though 
I  do  not  believe  that  I  so  expressed  myself  to  the  old  lady  or  to  any  other 
person. 

"  The  whole  affair  gave  Jackson  great  uneasiness,  and  this  will  not  ap 
pear  strange  to  one  as  well  acquainted  with  his  character  as  I  was.  Con 
tinually  together  during  our  attendance  on  wilderness  courts,  whilst  other 
young  men  were  indulging  in  familiarities  with  females  of  relaxed  morals, 
no  suspicion  of  this  kind  of  the  world's  censure  ever  fell  to  Jackson's  share. 
In  this — in  his  singularly-delicate  sense  of  honor,  and  in  what  I  thought 
his  chivalrous  conceptions  of  the  female  sex,  it  occurred  to  me  that  he 
was  distinguishable  from  every  other  person  with  whom  I  was  acquainted. 

"  About  the  time  of  Mrs.  Donelson' s  communication  to  me  respecting 
her  daughter's  intention  of  going  to  Natchez,  I  perceived  in  Jackson  symp 
toms  of  more  than  usual  concern.  I  determined  to  ascertain  the  cause, 
when  he  frankly  told  me  that  he  was  the  most  unhappy  of  men,  in  having 
innocently  and  unintentionally  been  the  cause  of  the  loss  of  peace  and 
happiness  of  Mrs.  Robards,  whom  he  believed  to  be  a  fine  woman.  In 
this  I  concurred  with  him,  but  remonstrated  on  the  propriety  of  his  not 
giving  himself  any  uneasiness  about  it.  It  was  not  long  after  this  before  he 
communicated  to  me  his  intention  of  going  to  Natchez  with  Colonel  Stark 
with  whom  Mrs.  Robards  was  to  descend  the  river,  saying  that  she  had 
no  friend  or  relation  that  would  go  with  her  or  assist  in  preventing  Stark 
and  his  family  and  Mrs.  Robards  from  being  massacred  by  the  Indians, 
then  in  a  state  of  war  and  exceedingly  troublesome.  Accordingly,  Jack 
son,  in  company  with  Mrs.  Robards  and  Colonel  Stark,  a  venerable  and 
highly-esteemed  old  man,  and  friend  of  Mrs.  Robards,  went  down  the 
river  from  Nashville  to  Natchez,  some  time  in  the  winter  or  spring  of 
1791.  It  was  not,  however,  without  the  urgent  entreaties  of  Colonel  Stark, 
who  wanted  protection  from  the  Indians,  that  Jackson  consented  to  accom 
pany  them  ;  of  which  I  had  heard  before  Jackson's  conversation  with  me 
already  alluded  to. 

"  Previously  to  Jackson's  starting,  he  committed  all  his  law-business  to 
me,  at  the  same  time  assuring  me,  that  as  soon  as  he  should  see  Colonel  Stark 
and  family  and  Mrs.  Robards  situated  with  their  friends  in  the  neighbor- 


152  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1791. 

hood  of  Natchez,  he  would  return  and  resume  his  practice.  He  descended 
the  river,  returned  from  Natchez  to  Nashville,  and  was  at  the  Superior 
Court  in  the  latter  place  in  May,  1791,  attending  to  his  business  as  a 
lawyer  and  solicitor  general  for  the  government.  About,  or  shortly  after 
this  time,  we  were  informed  that  a  divorce  had  been  granted  by  the  Legis 
lature  of  Virginia,  through  the  influence,  principally,  of  Captain  Robards' 
brother-in-law,  Major  John  Jouett,  who  was  probably  in  the  Legislature 
at  that  time. 

"  This  application  had  been  anticipated  by  me.  The  divorce  was  un 
derstood  by  the  people  of  this  country  to  have  been  granted  by  the  Legis 
lature  of  Virginia  in  the  winter  of  1790-1791.  I  was  in  Kentucky  in 
the  summer  of  1791,  remained  at  old  Mrs.  Robards',  my  former  place  of 
residence  part  of  my  time,  and  never  understood  otherwise  than  that 
Captain  Robards'  divorce  was  final,  until  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1793 
In  the  summer  of  1791,  General  Jackson  went  to  Natchez,  and,  I  under 
stood,  married  Mrs.  Robards,  then  believed  to  be  freed  from  Captair 
Robards  by  the  divorce  in  the  fall  of  1791.  They  returned  to  Nashville 
settled  in  the  neighborhood  of  it.  where  they  have  lived  ever  since,  be 
loved  and  esteemed  by  all  classes. 

"About  the  month  of  December,  1793,  after  General  Jackson  and 
myself  had  started  to  Jonesborough,  in  East  Tennessee,  where  we  prac 
ticed  law,  I  learned  for  the  first  time  that  Captain  Robards  had  applied 
to  Mercer  Court,  in  Kentucky,  for  a  divorce,  which  had  then  recently 
been  granted,  and  that  the  Legislature  had  not  absolutely  granted  a  divorce, 
but  left  it  for  the  court  to  do.  I  need  not  express  my  surprise,  on  learn 
ing  that  the  act  of  the  Virginia  Legislature  had  not  divorced  Captain 
Robards.  I  informed  General  Jackson  of  it,  who  was  equally  surprised ; 
and  during  our  conversation,  I  suggested  the  propriety  of  his  procuring  a 
license  on  his  return  home,  and  having  the  marriage  ceremony  again  per 
formed,  so  as  to  prevent  all  future  caviling  on  the  subject. 

"  To  this  suggestion,  he  replied,  that  he  had  long  since  been  married, 
on  the  belief  that  a  divorce  had  been  obtained,  which  was  the  understand 
ing  of  every  person  in  the  country ;  nor  was  it  without  difficulty  he  could 
be  induced  to  believe  otherwise. 

"  On  our  return  home  from  Jonesboro,  in  January,  1794,  to  Nashville, 
a  license  was  obtained,  and  the  marriage  ceremony  performed. 

"  The  slowness  and  inaccuracy  with  which  information  was  received  in 
West  Tennessee  at  that  time  will  not  be  surprising,  when  we  consider  its 
insulated  and  dangerous  situation,  surrounded  on  every  side  bv  the  wilder 
ness,  and  by  hostile  Indians,  and  that  there  was  no  mail  established  till 
about  1797,  as  well  as  I  recollect. 

"Since  the  year  1791,  General  Jackson  and  myself  have  never  been 
much  apart,  except  when  he  was  in  the  army.  I  have  been  intimate  in 


1791.]          MARRIAGE     OF     THE     SOLICITOR.  153 

his  family,  and  from  the  mutual  and  uninterrupted  happiness  of  the  Q-en- 
eral  and  Mrs.  Jackson,  which  I  have  at  all  times  witnessed  with  pleasure, 
as  well  as  those  delicate  and  polite  attentions  which  have  ever  been  recip 
rocated  between  them,  I  have  been  long  confirmed  in  the  opinion,  that 
there  never  existed  any  other  than  what  was  believed  to  be  the  most  hon 
orable  and  virtuous  intercourse  between  them.  Before  their  going  to 
Natchez,  I  had  daily  opportunities  of  being  convinced  that  there  was  none 
other ;  before  being  married  in  the  Natchez  country,  after  it  was  under 
stood  that  a  divorce  had  been  granted  by  the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  it  is 
believed  there  was  none." 

To  this  narrative,  so  simple,  yet  so  full,  there  is  little  to 
add  at  this  place.  It  was  at  Bayou  Pierre,  near  Natchez, 
that  the  couple  lived  awhile  after  their  marriage.  The  skel 
eton  of  the  log-house,  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  in 
which  they  passed  their  honeymoon,  was  standing  a  few 
years  ago,  and  may  be  still,  if  that  most  inconstant  Missis 
sippi  has  not  carried  it  away  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The 
house  in  which  they  were  married  a  second  time,  near  Nash 
ville,  is  also  standing,  and  is  known  to  the  old  inhabitants  of 
the  vicinity. 

It  was  a  happy  marriage — a  very  happy  marriage — one 
of  the  very  happiest  ever  contracted.  They  loved  one  an 
other  dearly.  They  held  each  other  in  the  highest  respect. 
They  testified  the  love  and  respect  they  entertained  for  one 
another  by  those  polite  attentions  which  lovers  can  not  but 
exchange  before  marriage  and  after  marriage.  Their  love 
grew  as  their  years  increased,  and  became  warmer  as  their 
blood  became  colder.  No  one  ever  heard  either  address  to 
the  other  a  disrespectful,  an  irritating,  or  unsympathizing 
word.  They  were  not  as  familiar  as  is  now  the  fashion.  He 
remained  "  Mr.  Jackson"  to  her  always  ;  never  "  General ;" 
still  less  "  Andrew."  And  he  never  called  her  "  Kachel,"  but 
"  Mrs.  Jackson,"  or  "  wife."  The  reader  shall  become  better 
acquainted  with  their  domestic  life  by  and  by.  Meanwhile, 
let  it  be  understood,  that  our  hero  has  now  a  Home,  where 
lives  a  Friend,  true  and  fond,  to  welcome  his  return  from 
"  wilderness  courts  ;"  to  cheer  his  stay  ;  to  lament  his  depart 
ure,  yet  give  him  a  motive  for  going  forth  ;  a  Home  wherein 


154  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1791. 

— whatever  manner  of  man  he  might  be  elsewhere — he  was 
always  gentle,  kind,  and  patient  ! 

He  was  most  prompt  to  defend  his  wife's  good  name. 
The  peculiar  circumstances  attending  his  marriage  made  him 
touchy  on  this  point.  His  temper,  with  regard  to  other  causes 
of  offense,  was  tinder  ;  with  respect  to  this,  it  was  gunpowder. 
His  worst  quarrels  arose  from  this  cause,  or  were  greatly  ag 
gravated  by  it.  He  became  sore  on  the  subject  ;  so  that,  at 
last,  I  think  he  could  scarcely  hate  any  one  very  heartily 
without  fancying  that  the  obnoxious  person  had  said  some 
thing,  or  caused  something  to  be  said,  which  reflected  on  the 
character  of  Mrs.  Jackson.  For  the  man  who  dared  breathe 
her  name  except  in  honor,  he  kept  pistols  in  perfect  condition 
for  thirty-seven  years. 

The  social  standing  of  Jackson  at  Nashville  was  not,  in 
the  slightest  degree,  affected  unfavorably  by  his  marriage. 
One  proof  of  it  is  this  :  in  October  of  this  very  year  he  was 
elected  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  Davidson  Academy,  a  body 
composed  of  the  first  men  and  clergymen  of  the  place.  The 
original  record  of  his  election  is  still  legible  in  the  following 
terms  : — 

"  1791.  October  8th. — Board  met  at  Spring  Hill.  Adjourned  to 
meet  at  Mr.  Clarke's,  in  Nashville,  at  10  o'clock,  Monday,  10th  inst.  .  . ,,.. 

"  Met  accordingly. 

"  Ordered,  that  Mr.  Andrew  Jackson  be  appointed  a  Trustee  in  the 
room  of  Colonel  William  Polk,  removed."* 

He  continued  to  serve  on  this  board  until  the  year  1805, 
attending  the  meetings  with  uncommon  regularity,  and  tak 
ing  a  leading  part  in  the  external  affairs  of  the  institution  ; 
which  finally  became  the  Nashville  University. 

*  Putnam's  History  of  Middle  Tennessee. 


1794.]     A     FIGHTING     DISTRICT     ATTORNEY.        155 

CHAPTER    XIV. 

A     FIGHTING     DISTRICT     ATTORNEY. 

THE  prosperity  of  Western  Tennessee  dates  from  Septem 
ber,  1794,  when  General  Robertson,  provoked  beyond  endur 
ance  by  the  frequency  and  audacity  of  the  Indian  outrages, 
sent  an  expedition  into  the  Cherokee  country,  and  dealt  such 
a  blow  at  the  tribe  as  induced  it  to  leave  the  Cumberland 
settlements  in  peace  ever  after.  This  was  the  Nickajack 
expedition — justly  famous  in  the  annals  of  Tennessee — a 
gallant  and  romantic  affair.  The  Indians  would  have  been 
pursued  into  their  own  country  long  before  but  for  the 
respect  in  which  the  authority  of  the  federal  government 
was  held.  President  Washington,  always  a  friend  of  peace, 
and  very  compassionate  toward  a  race  which  he  knew  was  a 
thousand  times  more  sinned  against  than  sinning,  was  slow 
to  authorize  retaliatory  measures  against  the  Indians.  But, 
during  this  autumn,  opportunity  carried  the  day  against 
patriotic  forbearance.  A  young  man,  who  had  spent  some 
years  of  his  boyhood  as  a  prisoner  among  the  Cherokees, 
offered  to  pilot  an  army  over  the  mountains  into  their  hith 
erto  inaccessible  retreats.  This  turned  the  scale.  General 
Eobertson  resolved  to  wait  no  longer  for  the  consent  of  a 
government  two  months'  journey  distant,  but  struck  the 
blow,  and  struck  it  effectually.  Thus  the  prediction  of  a 
sagacious  old  Cherokee  squaw  was  fulfilled.  When  the 
Indians  were  hesitating  whether  to  kill  or  spare  the  boy- 
prisoner,  the  old  woman  said,  "  If  you  do  not  kill  him,  he 
will  soon  be  grown,  and  will  then  get  away  and  guide  an 
army  here,  and  we  shall  all  be  killed/'  Her  advice  was  not 
heeded,  and  the  Nickajack  expedition  was  the  consequence.* 

It  was  long  supposed,  and  is  so  set  down  in  many  books, 

*  Ramsey's  Tennessee,  page  611. 


156  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1794. 

that  Jackson  accompanied  this  expedition  as  a  private  soldier. 
Eecent  investigation,  however,  renders  it  certain  that  he  took 
no  part  in  it.*  It  is  also  against  probability  that  a  man  of 
so  much  importance  as  he  then  was  in  the  territory,  should 
have  been  willing,  or  even  permitted,  to  serve  in  the  capacity 
of  a  private.  He  had,  moreover,  a  considerable  reputation  as 
an  Indian  fighter  and  wilderness  traveler.  Indeed,  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  he  already  held  a  commission  in  the 
militia  service  ;  for,  in  a  letter  of  Governer  Blount's  to  Gen 
eral  Kobertson,  dated  as  far  back  as  1792,  we  read  this  sen 
tence  :  "  Can't  you  contrive  for  Hay  to  resign,  and  I  will 
promote  Donelson  and  appoint  Jackson  second  major."")" 
There  is  no  doubt  that  he  favored  the  expedition.  It  is 
probable  that  one  ground  of  his  dissatisfaction  with  the 
administration  of  General  Washington  was  its  reluctance  to 
engage  in  war  with  the  western  Indians. 

His  absence  from  the  expedition  is  easily  accounted  for. 
Besides  being  in  the  full  tide  of  a  most  extensive  and  laborious 
practice,  he  held  an  important  office  under  the  very  adminis 
tration  which  forbade  such  expeditions.  It  was  his  official 
duty  to  suppress  the  expedition — not  join  it.  When  Tennes 
see  became  a  territory  of  the  United  States,  the  circuit  solici 
tor,  naturally  enough,  became  the  district  attorney.  Hence, 
doubtless,  the  absence  on  such  an  occasion  of  the  most  war 
like  personage  in  the  western  country. 

It  was  just  after  the  Nickajack  expedition  that  emigrants 
began  to  pour  into  the  valley  of  the  Cumberland  in  a  cease 
less  torrent.  In  a  little  moldy  old  book,  published  at  Phila 
delphia  in  1796,  for  the  evident  purpose  of  attracting  emigrants 
to  Western  Tennessee,  we  read  that  "  on  the  last  summer 

*  "  There  is  abundant  evidence  in  the  Tennessee  Historical  Society  to  justify 
me  assertion  that  General  Jackson  was  not  in  that  expedition.  The  testimony 
of  the  late  Captain  John  Davis,  Colonels  William  Pillow  and  Brown,  Charles  and 
Beale  Bosley,  yet  living,  is  concurrent  and  unquestionable,  and  wholly  in  oppo 
sition  to  the  statement  in  the  Annals." — Putnam's  History  of  Middle  Tennessee, 
page  478. 

f  Putnam's  History  of  Middle  Tennessee,  page  398. 


1794.]        A    FIGHTING     DISTRICT     ATTORNEY.         157 

a  £00(1  wasron  road  was  cut  across  Cumberland  mountain, 

O  O  7 

and  it  was  passed  by  thirty  or  forty  wagons  in  the  fall. 
The  late  friendly  conduct  of  the  Cherokee  Indians,  in  conse 
quence  of  a  long  Talk  with  Governor  Blount,  and  the  amic 
able  disposition  of  the  Spanish  government,  has  greatly  altered 
the  condition  of  settlers  on  Cumberland  river,  and  made  them 
perfectly  happy.  Several  thousands  crossed  the  Cumberland 
mountain  in  September,  October  and  November  last,  in  de 
tached  families,  without  a  guard  and  without  danger.  The 
Indians  treated  them  with  kindness,  visited  their  camp  at 
night,  and  supplied  them  plentifully  with  venison/' 

No  mention  of  the  Nickajaek  expedition.  By  no  means. 
Our  Indians,  you  perceive,  Messrs.  Emigrants,  are  swayed  by 
the  friendly  talk  of  a  governor,  and  lie  in  ambush  only  to 
surprise  the  passing  trains  with  presents  of  venison  !  ! 

As  the  country  prospered,  its  district  attorney  could  not 
but  prosper  with  it.  He  was  a  prospering  man  by  nature. 
The  land  records  of  1794,  1795,  1796  and  1797,  show  that  it 
was  during  those  years  that  Jackson  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  large  estate  which  he  subsequently  acquired.  Those  were 
the  days  in  which  a  lawyer's  fee  for  conducting  a  suit  of  no 
great  importance  might  be  a  square  mile  of  land,  or,  in  western 
phrase,  "  a  six-forty."  The  circulating  medium  of  Europe, 
says  some  witty  writer,  is  gold  ;  of  Africa,  men  ;  of  Asia, 
women  ;  of  America,  land.*  Jackson  appears  frequently 

*  Colonel  A.  "W.  Putnam,  in  bis  History  of  Middle  Tennessee,  says,  in  writ 
ing  of  this  period:  "The  amount  of  silver  and  gold  was  very  small.  Horses 
and  cows,  axes  and  cow-beEs,  constituted  the  ready  '  circulating  medium.'  To 
this  indispensable  yet  variable  currency  was  added  the  '  military  warrants'  for 
land,  and,  as  small  change,  the  Guard  certificates.  Peltries  and  Buffalo  hides 
served  very  well  to  supply  the  demand  for  '  foreign  exchange,'  or  rather  eastern 
ind  southern  purchases.  Small  supplies  of  salt,  sugar  and  coffee,  came  from 
Orleans;  usually  by  the  way  of  Illinois!  and  Kentucky  !  The  necessity  of  axes 
and  cow-bells,  and  the  high  value  set  upon  them  by  the  pioneer  settlers,  may  be 
understood,  when  we  reflect  that  the  cattle  were  l  turned  into  the  brakes  to 
browse;'  and  'must  be  belled  that  they  might  be  found ;'  and  '  axes  were  indis 
pensable  in  clearing  lands,  felling  trees,  making  fences  and  building  houses.' 

"  Persons  now  living  (1858)  remember  to  have  heard,  in  trade,  the  expressions. 
'two-twenty1  and  'six-forty,'  'I  will  give  or  take  a  640.'     These  amounts  indi 
VOL.  I. 11 


158  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1794. 

in  the  records  of  the  years  named  as  the  purchaser  and  as 
signee  of  sections  of  land.  He  bought  six  hundred  and  fifty 
acres  of  the  fine  tract  which  afterwards  formed  the  Hermit 
age  farm  for  eight  hundred  dollars — a  high  price  for  that 
day.  By  the  time  that  Tennessee  entered  the  Union  in  1796, 
Jackson  was  a  very  extensive  land-owner,  and  a  man  of  fail- 
estate  for  a  frontier's  man.  One  proof  of  his  wealth  is,  that, 
in  1797,  he  sold  more  than  six  thousand  dollars  worth  of  land 
to  a  gentleman  in  Philadelphia,  and  had  several  thousand 
acres  left.  The  secret  of  his  prosperity  was,  that  he  acquired 
large  tracts  when  large  tracts  could  be  bought  for  a  horse  or  a 
cow-bell,  and  held  them  till  the  torrent  of  emigration  made 
them  valuable. 

The  second  letter  of  Jackson's  (in  the  order  of  dates) 
which  I  have  found,  relates  to  the  division  of  a  piece  of  land. 
It  was  addressed,  like  the  one  previously  quoted,  to  his  brother- 
in-law,  General  Daniel  Smith,  and  is  dated  Poplar  Grove. 
October  29th,  1795. 

ANDREW   JACKSON   TO    GENERAL    DANIEL    SMITH. 

"  SIR  :  Captain  John  Hays  and  myself  wish  to  have  our  land  divided ; 
'for  which  purpose,  to-morrow  is  appointed,  wish  to  get  the  favor  of  you  to 
do  the  business,  as  we  wish  it  done  accurate ;  therefore  hope  you  will  do 
us  the  favor  to  come  to  my  house  this  evening,  so  that  we  may  take  an 
early  start  to-morrow.  Will  thank  you  to  bring  with  you  your  compass 
and  chain.  If  you  can  not  come,  will  thank  you  to  favor  me  with  the  loan 
of  your  compass  and  chain  by  the  bearer.  I  am,  sir,  with  the  highest 
esteem,  your  most  obedient  servant,  ANDW.  JACKSON."* 

The  office  of  public  prosecutor  held  by  Jackson  during 

catod  so  many  acres  of  land.  There  is  a  640  very  near  the  city  of  Nashville,  on 
the  Lebanon  Pike,  which  was  once  sold  for  'three  axes  and  two  cow-bells,'  as  wo 
.have  been  credibly  informed.  '  A  faithful  rifle  and  a  clear  toned  bell1  were  traded 
for  another  tract.  Each  of  these  pieces  of  kind  is  now  worth  many  thousands 
of  dollars.  One  of  the  most  valuable  farms  in  Maury  was  lost  and  won  at  a 
game  to  us  unknown,  and  is  to  this  day  called  by  the  name  '  Rattle  and  Snap.'1 ': 

*  To  this  tattered  and  yellow  note  was  pinned  a  piece  of  paper  in  another 
thand,  containing  the  following : 

"  Friday,  Oct.  30  \      Mr.  Jackson's  and  John  Hays'  land  Beg's 

•Chas.  Mitchel  and  Jno.  Bokey.  i  at  a  Sugar  tree  and  Small  hackberry  on  S 


1795.]       A     FIGHTING     DISTRICT     ATTORN  TY.         159 

the  first  seven  or  eight  years  of  his  residence  in  Tennessee, 
was  one  that  a  man  of  only  ordinary  nerve  and  courage  could 
not  have  filled.  It  set  in  array  against  him  all  the  scoundrels 
in  the  territory.  Those  were  the  times  when  a  notorious 
criminal  would  defy  the  officers  of  justice,  and  keep  them  at 
bay  for  years  at  a  time  ;  when  a  district  attorney  who  made 
himself  too  officious  was  liable  to  a  shot  in  the  back  as  he 
rode  to  court ;  when  two  men,  not  satisfied  with  the  court's 
award,  would  come  out  of  the  court  house  into  the  public 
square  and  fight  it  out  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  popula 
tion,  judge  and  juryr  perhaps,  looking  on  ;  when  the  public 
prosecutor  was  apt  to  be  regarded  as  the  man  whose  office  it 
was  to  spoil  good  sport,  and  interfere  between  gentlemen. 
Jackson  had  his  share  of  "  personal  difficulties,"  as  rough- 
and-tumble  fights  are  politely  termed  in  that  country  to  this 
day.  One  of  these,  which  occurred  when  he  was  young  in 
his  office,  I  can  relate  in  very  nearly  his  own  words.  He  told 
the  story,  one  day,  in  the  White  House,  to  a  very  intimate 
friend,  who  expected  to  be  assailed,  in  the  streets  for  his  ar 
dent  support  of  the  administration. 

"  Now,  Mr.  B.,"  said  the  General,  "  if  any  one  attacks 
you,  I  know  how  you'll  fight  with  that  big  black  stick  of 
yours.  You'll  aim  right  for  his  head.  Well,  sir,  ten  chances 
to  one  he'll  ward  it  off ;  and  if  you  do  hit  him,  you  won't 
bring  him  down.  No,  sir,"  (taking  the  stick  into  his  own 
hands,)  "you  hold  the  stick  so,  and  punch  him  in  the  stomach, 
and  you'll  drop  him.  I'll  tell  you  how  I  found  that  out. 
When  I  was  a  young  man  practicing  law  in  Tennessee,  there 
was  a  big  bullying  fellow  that  wanted  to  pick  a  quarrel  with 

bank  of  Cumberland,  opposite  Jane's  Island,  E  256  po-S  76  E  22  po  to  the  all 
cor  opposite  the  mouth  of  McNeil's  Spring  branch,  E  at  140  left  McNeil's  Spring 
branch,  which  we  had  crossed  several  times — at  183  po  crossed  Bo  wen's  line  at 
220  po  the  cor  aft  bore  from  us  N  8  po.  1. 

"Saturday,  31st  Oct. — From  McNeil's  Spriug-E  40  to  a  point  in  Bowen's  line 
in  a  dry  branch.  N  110  po  along  Bowen's  line  to  a  Dogwood  in  Roberts  North 
Boundary — along  it  E  32  po  to  the  aft  supposed  to  be  the  Beg's — S  2°  E  262  po 
to  a  point  in  Hugh  Hay's  line  "VV.  204  po  to  a  wt  Hickory  Box  alder  and  elm 
Saplin — North  258 ,po  to  n  red  0  on  the  bluff  19  po  above  the  aft." 


160  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1795. 

me,  and  so  trod  on  my  toes.  Supposing  it  accidental,  I  said 
nothing.  Soon  after,  he  did  it  again,  and  I  began  to  suspect 
his  object.  In  a  few  minutes  he  came  by  a  third  time,  push 
ing  against  me  violently,  and  evidently  meaning  fight.  He 
was  a  man  of  immense  size,  one  of  the  very  biggest  men  I 
ever  saw.  As  quick  as  a  flash,  I  snatched  a  small  rail  from 
the  top  of  the  fence,  and  gave  him  the  point  of  it  full  in 
his  stomach.  Sir,  it  doubled  him  up.  He  fell  at  my  feet,, 
and  I  stamped  on  him.  Soon  he  got  up  savage,  and  was 
about  to  fly  at  me  like  a  tiger.  The  bystanders  made  as 
though  they  would  interfere.  Says  I,  ( Gentlemen,  stand 
back,  give  me  room,  that's  all  I  ask,  and  I'll  manage  him/ 
With  that  I  stood  ready  with  the  rail  pointed.  He  gave  me 
one  look,  and  turned  away,  a  whipped  man,  sir,  and  feeling- 
like  one.  So,  sir,  I  say  to  you,  if  any  villain  assaults  you, 
give  him  the  pint  in  his  belly." 

The  effect  of  such  a  victory  in  giving  a  man  influence  and 
status  in  a  frontier  country  can  be  imagined. 

Another  stick  story  is  current  in  Tennessee.  The  ferry 
across  the  Cumberland  having  been  leased  for  the  sum  of  one 
hundred  dollars  per  annum,  General  Daniel  Smith  remarked, 
at  a  meeting  of  the  trustees  of  the  Academy  : 

"  Why,  that  is  enough  to  pay  the  ferriage  of  all  the  trus 
tees  over  the  river  Styx." 

"Sticks  ?"  replied  Jackson.  "I  want  but  one  stick  to 
make  my  way/' 

0,  those  were  wild  times  !  Jackson  had  not  been  long  at 
the  bar  before  he  fought  a  duel.  His  antagonist  was  that 
Colonel  Waightstill  Avery,  of  Morganton,  North  Carolina, 
to  whom  he  had  once  applied  for  instruction  in  the  law,  and 
with  whom  he  afterwards  practiced  at  the  Jonesboro  court. 
The  present  Colonel  Isaac  T.  Avery,  of  Morganton,  is  a  son  of 
that  gentleman.  Upon  applying  to  him  for  information,  I  was 
gratified  to  receive,  not  only  an  account  of  the  duel,  but  also 
many  other  anecdotes  and  reminiscences  of  great  interest, 
throwing  light  upon  our  subject,  where  it  needed  light  most. 
Some  of  Colonel  Avery's  stories  relate  to  a  later  day  than 


1795.]       A     FIGHTING     DISTRICT     ATTORNEY. 


161 


that  which  we  are  now  investigating,  but  as  it  seems  a  pity 
to  break  into  fragments  so  interesting  a  communication,  I 
transcribe  his  letter  entire  at  this  place.  One  or  two  of  the 
on  dits  mentioned  are  not  quite  correct,  but  we  have  a  certain 
interest  in  knowing  what  was  said  and  believed  of  the  man 
at  that  early  day. 

"  My  first  knowledge  of  General  Jackson/'  says  Colonel 
A  very,  ais  traditionary.  He  came  to  Morganton,  with  a 
view  to  study  law  with  my  father,  prompted  by  the  fact  that 
my  father  had  at  that  time  the  best  law  library  in  western 
North  Carolina.  The  country  was  new.  My  father's  im 
provements  were  of  the  log-cabin  order,  and  want  of  house- 
room  rendered  it  inconvenient  to  receive  the  young  man  into 
his  family  as  a  boarder,  though  he  was  desirous  to  do  so. 
Jackson  returned  to  Salisbury,  and  studied  law  with  Spruce 
McCay,  who  was  afterwards  circuit  judge.  The  office  in 
which  he  studied  still  stands,  and  was  pointed  out  to  me  last 
summer. 

"  My  father  never  was  the  law  partner  of  General  Jack 
son,  as  has  been  alleged.  If  Jackson  ever  practiced  in  the 
courts  east  of  the  Blue  Kidge,  it  was  only  for  a  short  time, 
until  he  could  obtain  a  Superior  Court  license.  He  paid  a 
visit  to  my  father  on  his  way  to  settle  in  the  West.  He 
passed  directly  on  to  a  block  house  near  where  Nashville  now 
stands,  then  a  hostile  frontier,  and  boarded  with  Mrs.  Donel- 
son,  the  mother  of  the  lady  he  afterwards  married. 

"  Under  the  judicial  system  of  North  Carolina,  there  were 
then  but  three  district  courts  in  what  is  now  Tennessee,  in 
which  all  appeals,  and  important  civil  and  criminal  suits, 
were  tried.  They  lasted  fifteen  days.  Notwithstanding  the 
distance  apart,  they  were  attended  by  every  prominent  law 
yer  in  the  State.  Jonesboro  was  the  only  court  on  that  side 
of  the  Blue  Ridge  that  my  father  attended.  They  had  crim 
inal  courts  of  Oyer  and  Terrniner  there,  when  the  jails  were 
full.  -  , 

"  In  the  trial  of  a  suit  one  afternoon,  General  Jackson 
and  my  faf-hcr  were  opposing  counsel.  The  General  always 


162  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1795. 

espoused  the  caus  j  of  his  client  warmly,  and  seemed  to  make 
it  his  own.  On  this  occasion,  the  cause  was  going  against 
him,  and  he  became  irritable.  My  father  rather  exultingly 
ridiculed  some  legal  position  taken  by  Jackson ;  using,  as  he 
afterwards  admitted,  language  more  sarcastic  than  was  called 
for.  It  stung  Jackson,  who  snatched  up  a  pen,  and  on  the 
blank  leaf  of  a  law  book  wrote  a  peremptory  challenge,  which 
he  delivered  there  and  then.  It  was  as  promptly  accepted. 
My  father  was  no  duelist ;.  in  fact,  he  was  opposed  to  the 
principle,  but,  with  his  antecedents,  in  that  age  and  country, 
to  have  declined  would  have  been  to  have  lost  caste.  The 
occurrence  was  not  noticed  or  known  in  the  court  house. 
They  remained  until  the  cause  was  put  to  jury,  when  my 
father  went  into  the  street  to  look  for  a  friend.  After  some 
little  time,  he  found  General  John  Adair,  who  consented  to 
act.  The  arrangements  occupied  some  further  time,  and 
when  the  parties  met,  in  a  hollow  north  of  Jonesboro,  it  was 
after  sundown.  The  ground  was  measured,  and  the  parties 
were  placed.  They  fired.  Fortunately,  neither  was  hit. 
General  Jackson  acknowledged  himself  satisfied.  They 
shook  hands,  and  were  friendly  ever  after. 

"  The  late  Samuel  P.  Carron,  when  member  of  Congress 
from  this  district,  conversed  with  General  Jackson,  then 
President,  and  also  with  General  Adair,  on  this  subject,  and 
their  statements  agreed  precisely  with  the  one  given  above.* 

"  In  my  twelfth  year  I  was  taken  to  a  Grammar  School 
kept  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Doak,  eight  miles  from  Jonesboro. 
My  father  permitted  me  to  stay  with  him  during  those 
fifteen-day  courts,  and  I  saw  much  of  General  Jackson  then 
and  subsequently.  I  will  give  you  some  characteristic  inci 
dents  which  I  witnessed,  as  well  as  some  on  dits  of  that  day, 
so  well  vouched  that  I  have  no  doubt  they  are  correct.  In 
recalling  my  reminiscences,  I  shall  not  place  them  in  chrono 
logical  order,  but  jot  them  down  as  they  occur  to  me. 

"  I  was  at  Jonesboro  court,  at1  one  time,  when  every  house 

*  There  was  a  comic  incident  connected  with  this  duel  that  General  Jackson 


1795.]      A     FIGHTING     DISTRICT     ATTORNEY.         163 

in  the  .own  was  crowded.  About  twelve  o'clock  at  night,  a 
fire  broke  out  in  the  stables  of  Kawlings,  the  principal  hotel- 
keeper  of  the  place.  There  was  a  large  quantity  of  hay  in 
the  stables,  which  stood  in  dangerous  proximity  to  the  tav 
ern,  court  house,  and  business  part  of  the  town.  The  alarm 
filled  the  streets  with  lawyers,  judges,  ladies  in  their  night 
dresses,  and  a  concourse  of  strangers  and  citizens.  General 
Jackson  no  sooner  entered  the  street  than  he  assumed  the 
command.  It  seemed  to  be  conceded  to  him.  He  shouted 
for  buckets,  and  formed  two  lines,  of  men  reaching  from  the 
fire  to  a  stream  that  ran  through  the  town  ;  one  line  to  pass 
the  empty  buckets  to  the  stream,  and  the  other  to  return 
them  full  to  the  fire.  He  ordered  the  roofs  of  the  tavern  and 
of  the  houses  most  exposed  to  be  covered  with  wet  blankets, 
and  stationed  men  on  the  roofs  to  keep  them  wet.  Amidst 
the  shrieks  of  the  women,  and  the  frightful  neighing  of  the 
burning  horses,  every  order  was  distinctly  heard  and  obeyed. 
In  the  line  up  which  the  full  buckets  passed,  the  bank  of  the 
stream  soon  became  so  slippery  that  it  was  difficult  to  stand. 
While  General  Jackson  was  strengthening  that  part  of  the 
line,  a  drunken  coppersmith,  named  Boyd,  who  said  he  had 
seen  fires  at  Baltimore,  began  to  give  orders  and  annoy  per 
sons  in  the  line. 

"  '  Fall  into  line  !'  shouted  the  General. 

"  The  man  continued  jabbering.  Jackson  seized  a  bucket 
by  the  handle,  knocked  him  down,  and  walked  along  the  line 
giving  hie  orders  as  coolly  as  before.  He  saved  the  toivn  ! 

"  I  was  in  Jonesboro  when  the  first  difficulty  occurred 
between  Jackson  and  Governor  Sevier.  Sevier  had  been 
Major  General,  and  had  just  been  elected  Governor  (1796). 
Jackson  wished  him  formally  to  resign  the  Major  General 
ship,  as  the  Governor  was  ex  officio  commander-in-chief,  and 
Jackson  wished  and  expected  to  fill  the  office.  Sevier  for 

would  not  tell.  A  gentleman  once  mentioned  the  duel  to  him.  "Who  told  you 
about  it  ?"  asked  the  President,  laughing..  "  General  Adair."  "  Did  he  tell  you 
what  happened  on  the  ground  ?"  "  No."  "  Well,  then,  I  shan't,"  replied  the 
General,  still  lau{r  hing. — J.  P. 


164  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1795. 

some  reison  refused.  High  words  passed  between  them. 
Jackson  challenged  Sevier.  Sevier  refused  to  fight  on  the 
ground  of  his  poverty  and  numerous  family  ;  adding,  that  it 
was  not  necessary  for  him  to  fight  to  prove  his  bravery,  as 
he  had  done  that  where  brave  men  should,  against  the  ene 
mies  of  his  country.  This  increased  the  bad  feeling  between 
them.  They  met  in  Knoxville  some  time  after  and  quarreled 
again.  In  the  course  of  the  dispute,  Jackson  mentioned  his 
services  to  the  State  (on  the  frontier,  I  suppose). 

•  "  c  Services  ?'  replied  Sevier.  '  I  know  of  no  great  ser 
vice  you  have  rendered  the  country,  except  taking  a  trip  to 
Natchez  with  another  man's  wife/ 

"'Great  God!'  cried  Jackson,  'do  you  mention  her 
sacred  name  ?' 

"  Several  shots  were  fired  in  a  crowded  street.  One  man 
was  grazed  by  a  bullet ;  many  were  scared  ;  but,  luckily,  no 
one  was  hurt.  Jackson's  exclamation,  l  Great  God  !'  became 
a  by- word  among  the  young  men  at  Knoxville. 

"  Shortly  after,  on  the  main  road  from  Knoxville  to 
Kingston,  then  a  garrisoned  fort,  Sevier  and  his  eldest  son 
by  his  second  marriage,  a  youth  of  seventeen  or  eighteen, 
were  met  by  General  Jackson  and  Dr.  Vandyke  of  the  army, 
I  think.  On  approaching,  General  Jackson  drew  his  pistol 
and  called  on  Sevier  to  defend  himself.  Sevier  jumped  off 
his  horse  ;  but,  as  he  did  so,  his  horse  ran  off  with  his  hols 
ters.  Young  Sevier  drew  on  General  Jackson,  swearing  he 
would  protect  his  father.  Vandyke  drew  on  young  Sevier, 
swearing  he  would  protect  General  Jackson.  At  this  mo 
ment  travelers  rode  up,  who  interposed,  and  the  pistols  were 
uncocked.  Before  the  end  of  his  official  term,  Governor 
Sevier  was  within  prison  bounds  (for  debt),  and  whether 
they  ever  became  friendly  I  do  not  know.  I  should  suppose 
not.  Sevier  had  touched  on  a  subject  that  was  with  Jackson, 
like  sinning  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  unpardonable. 

"  I  was  present  one  evening  in  Jonesboro,  when  General 
Jackson  was  talking  to  some  dozen  of  his  friends.  He  told 
them  that  in  passing  through  a  town  in  Virginia  he  learned 


1795.]       A     FIGHTING     DISTRICT      ATTORNEY.        165 

at  breakfast  that  Patrick  Henry  was  to  defend  a  criminal 
there  that  day.  He  was  induced  to  stop. 

"  '  No  description  I  had  ever  heard/  said  Jackson,  warmly, 
'  no  conception  I  had  ever  formed,  had  given  me  any  just 
idea  of  the  man's  powers  of  eloquence/ 

"  Pleasant  Miller  of  Virginia,  and  George  W.  Campbell 
of  North  Carolina,  both  lawyers  then  of  Tennessee,  were  sit 
ting  on  a  bed  in  the  room.  After  Jackson  had  finished  his 
eulogy,  Campbell  remarked, 

"  '  It  is  d — d  extraordinary  that  some  men  can  get  credit 
for  talents  they  never  possessed,  while  others  who  really  have 
talents  are  never  spoken  of/ 

"  He  seemed  to  wish  it  to  be  inferred  from  this  observa 
tion  that  Henry  was  not  the  man  Jackson  had  described  him 
to  be ;  but  that  he,  G-eorge  W.  Campbell,  was.  A  very 
awkward  pause,  felt  to  be  such  by  the  whole  company,  en 
sued.  At  length,  Miller  slapped  Campbell  on  the  thigh,  and 
exclaimed, 

"'If  we  only  had  him  here  in  the  county  court,  I'd  be 
d — d,  George,  if  we  shouldn't  make  a  perfect  fool  of  him/ 

"  Jackson  sprang  to  his  feet  and  cried, 

"  '  By  G — d  !  bring  me  my  pistols/ 

"  Captain  Penny  and  Captain  Phagan,  two  of  his  warm 
friends,  ran  up  to  him,  and  said, 

"  l  Why,  General,  what's  the  matter  ?  What  do  you  want 
with  your  pistols  ?" 

"  i  By  G — d,  I  want  to  kill  Miller.  He  can  never  die  in  a 
better  time,  for,  by  the  Eternal,  that  speech  will  immortalize 

him  !' " 

#  -;;:•  #  -;;:-  #  •:;•  •:> 

"  On  the  3d  of  July,  1809,  I  rode  from  Rutherford  court 
house  to  Nashville.  I  there  saw  the  General  in  a  character 
new  to  me.  He  had  made  a  main  of  cocks  with  Patton  An 
derson,  to  be  fought  on  the  Fourth  for  six  hundred  and  forty 
acres  of  land.  Whatever  General  Jackson  did  was  the  fash- 
ioa.  His  influence  over  young  men  was  unbounded.  Cock- 
fighting  was,  accordingly,  the  order  of  the  day.  I  passed  ox 


166  LIFE     OF      ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1795 

carts  and  wagons  loaded  with  chickens.  They  were  arriv 
ing  by  boats,  too,  from  up  and  down  the  Cumberland.  Gen 
eral  Jackson  won  the  main,  but  the  fighting  by  amateurs 
continued.  On  the  third  afternoon  of  the  fighting,  I  think, 
when  I  went  to  the  pit  with  George  W.  Campbell,  a  chicken 
of  the  General's,  after  being  cut  down,  revived,  and,  by  a 
lucky  stroke,  killed  his  antagonist.  Upon  this,  I  heard  Jack 
son  say  to  Campbell, 

" e  There  is  the  greatest  emblem  of  bravery  on  earth. 
Bonaparte  is  not  braver  !' 

"  They  were  drinking  quantities  of  mint-julep.  I  remained 
at  the  pit  long  enough  to  see  large  sums  of  money  and  several 
horses  change  hands.  I  suppose  it  was  ennui,  or  want  of 
excitement,  that  made  him  do  it.  I  never  heard  of  his  fight 
ing  chickens  before  or  after  this  occasion,  though  he  may 
have  done  it. 

"  As  having  connection  with  General  Jackson,  and  as  illus 
trating  the  manners  of  the  time,  I  must  say  something  of 
Russell  Bean,  the  gunsmith.  He  was  the  most  perfect  model 
of  a  man,  for  strength  and  activity,  I  ever  saw  ;  perfectly 
fearless,  and,  when  excited,  desperate  ;  a  man  of  good  family. 
He  married  a  daughter  of  Colonel  Charles  Robison,  an  illit 
erate  old  man,  who  had  fought  under  Sevier  at  King's  Moun 
tain,  and  made  campaigns  against  the  Indians.  Bean  and 
his  wife  had  several  children.  Disposed  to  ramble,  he  went 
to  Connecticut,  brought  home  all  the  improvements  then 
known  in  the  manufacture  of  rifles,  and  established  a  manu 
factory  of  arms.  He  bought  a  flat  boat  on  the  Nollichucky 
river,  and  freighted  it  from  the  profits  of  his  business.  Steer 
ing  the  boat  himself,  he  descended  to  New  Orleans,  where  he 
amused  himself,  for  some  time,  in  horse  racing  and  foot 
racing.  He  returned  to  Jonesboro,  after  a  year's  absence,  on 
the  Monday  when  the  court  convened,  during  which  the  fire 
occurred,  and  found  his  wife  at  the  tavern  with  an  infant  in 
the  cradle.  Her  seducer  was  a  merchant  of  the  town,  named 
Allen.  Bean,  though  not  addicted  to  drink,  went  out  and 
got  drunk.  Returning  to  his  wife's  room,  he  took  the  child 


1795.]       A     FIGHTING     DISTRICT     ATTORN  EY.          167 

from  the  cradle,  and  cut  off  its  ears  close  to  its  head.  I  saw 
the  child  three  minutes  afterward.  Bean  was  taken,  tried, 
convicted,  branded  in  the  hand  and  sentenced  to  twelve 
months'  imprisonment.  A  jail  was  no  obstacle  to  a  man  of 
his  skill  and  strength.  He  broke  out  the  first  night,  which 
was  the  night  of  the  Jonesboro  fire.  He  was  still  in  sight, 
however,  when  the  flames  burst  forth.  He  rushed  in,  tore 
the  stable  doors  from  their  hinges  to  release  the  horses,  scaled 
the  roofs  of  the  houses,  spread  wet  blankets,  and  did  more 
than  any  two  men,  except  General  Jackson,  in  saving  the 
town.  The  next  morning,  Governor  Sevier,  who  only  wanted 
an  excuse,  pardoned  him  from  the  imprisonment. 

"  Time  passed.  Bean  wanted  to  kill  Allen,  the  seducer 
of  his  wife,  and  concealed  himself.  It  was  while  he  was  in  a 
difficulty  with  Allen's  brother  that  the  sheriff  was  ordered  to 
bring  him  into  court,  and  reported  that  he  could  not  arrest 
him  ;  upon  which,  Jackson,  who  was  then  the  presiding 
judge,  said,  i  Summon  me/  As  soon  as  Bean,  who  had 
retreated  down  the  street,  saw  him  approaching,  he  said,  (  I 
will  surrender  to  General  Jackson/  He  walked  into  the 
court  room  and  was  fined. 

"  Bean's  wife  obtained  a  divorce,  and  removed  to  Knox- 
ville.  Bean,  meanwhile,  seduced  a  reputable  girl  near  Jones 
boro,  and,  like  Sharpe  by  Beauchamp,  he  persuaded  a  good 
looking  journeyman  he  had,  to  visit  her  and  make  her  his 
mistress.  The  young  man  became  fascinated  with  her,  and 
agreed  to  marry  her  after  her  accouchment,  and  go  West. 
Soon  after,  Bean  was  awakened  one  night  by  a  woman,  who 
placed  a  new-born  infant,  wrapped  in  a  blanket,  in  his  arms. 
He  immediately  sent  out  for  a  sucking  bottle  and  whatever 
else  was  necessary,  and  raised  the  child  without  a  nurse.  He 
told  me  it  was  not  much  more  trouble  than  a  little  pig,  and 
that  he  took  pleasure  in  it.  Ten  years  after,  he  was  at  Knox- 
ville  with  a  boat.  His  wife,  who  was  still  living  there,  had 
conducted  herself  well  in  the  interim.  The  cropped  child  and 
the  one  he  had  raised  were  both  dead.  General  Jackson  was 
in  the  town  at  the  time,  and  interested  himself  in  bringing 


168  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1795. 

Bean  and  his  wife  together  again.  He  said  it  was  his  regard 
for  old  Colonel  Robison,  and  for  the  Bean  family,  that  in 
duced  him  to  use  his  influence.  He  succeeded.  They  were 
married  again,  and,  years  after,  they  were  living  happily 
together.  All  the  latter  part  of  this  statement  I  had  from 
Bean's  own  lips.  A  true  narrative  of  his  life  and  adventures 
would  show  that  truth  is  stranger  than  fiction. 

"  As  I  have  alluded,  without  thinking  of  it,  to  Mrs.  Jack 
son  in  my  account  of  the  quarrel  with  Sevier,  I  will  venture 
to  give  you  the  version  of  General  George  L.  Davidson,  a 
man  of  high  character,  who  afterward  led  a  regiment  from 
this  neighborhood  to  meet  General  Jackson  in  the  Creek 
nation.  He  was  the  General's  warm  friend  and  zealous  sup 
porter.  He  was  a  youth  in  the  block  house  of  Mrs.  Donelson 
when  Jackson  first  took  board  with  that  lady  on  the  banks 
of  the  Cumberland.  Mrs.  Donelson  kept  the  best  house  in 
the  country,  and  with  her  lived  her  daughter,  a  beautiful 
woman  born  in  North  Carolina,  but  now  married  to  a  Ken- 
tuckian  named  Robards.  Jackson,  always  polite,  was  par 
ticularly  so  to  the  beautiful  Mrs.  Robards,  without  an  ill 
thought  on  the  part  of  any  one  except  Robards,  who  seems 
to  have  been  a  jealous  fellow.  One  afternoon  a  guard  was 
turned  out  to  escort  the  ladies  to  a  blackberry  patch,  when 
Robards  remarked  to  several  of  the  guard  that  he  thought 
Jackson  was  too  intimate  with  his  wife.  The  men  all  liked 
Jackson,  and  some  of  them  told  him  what  Robards  had  said. 
He  sought  an  opportunity,  and  told  Robards  that  if  he  ever 
connected  his  name  with  that  of  Mrs.  Robards  in  that  way 
again,  he  would  cut  his  ears  out  of  his  head,  and  that  he  was 
tempted  to  do  it  any  how.  Robards  went  to  the  nearest 
magistrate,  and  swore  out  a  peace  warrant.  Jackson  was 
arrested  by  a  constable,  and  a  guard  summoned  from  the 
block  house  to  guard  him — Robards  accompanying.  On  the 
way,  Jackson  asked  one  of  the  guard  for  his  butcher  knife. 
He  at  first  refused  ;  but  on  Jackson's  pledging  his  honor  that 
he  would  do  no  harm  with  it,  the  knife  was  given  him. 
Jackson  examined  the  point  and  the  edge,  glancing  the  while 


1795.]      A     FIGHTING     DISTRICT     ATTORNEY.          169 

at  Robards.  Robards  became  alarmed,  and  began  to  run. 
Jackson  pursued  him  into  the  cane,  then  returned,  and  went 
to  the  magistrate.  No  prosecutor  appearing,  the  warrant 
was  dismissed.  Robards  never  returned  to  the  block  house, 
but  went  to  Kentucky.  His  wife  was  afraid  to  rejoin  such  an 
insanely  jealous  husband.  At  what  time  Robards  instituted 
proceedings  for  a  divorce  I  do  not  know.  Jackson,  seeing 
she  had  lost  her  husband  on  his  account,  swore  by  the  Eter 
nal  he  would  take  her  under  his  own  protection,  and,  not 
long  after,  they  stepped  into  a  boat,  descended  to  Natchez, 
and  were  married  by  a  Roman  Catholic  priest.  They  were 
afterward  married  by  a  Protestant  clergyman,  I  believe. 

"  My  father,  I  may  add,  liked  General  Jackson,  and 
thought,  as  I  think,  that,  notwithstanding  his  infirmities  of 
temper  and  strong  will,  he  had  admirable  traits  of  character, 
that  compelled  those  who  saw  much  of  him  to  love  and 
admire  him." 


CHAPTER     XY. 

CONSTITUTION     MAKING. 

THE  rush  of  population  into  the  Territory  was  such  that, 
in  July,  1795,  the  Territorial  Legislature  ordered  a  census  to 
be  taken  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  whether  there  was 
riot  the  requisite  number  of  inhabitants  for  the  admission  of 
the  Territory  into  the  Union  as  a  sovereign  State.  The  Legis 
lature  further  enacted  that  "if  it  should  appear  that  there 
are  sixty  thousand  inhabitants,  counting  the  whole  of  the 
free  persons,  including  those  bound  to  service  for  a  term  of 
years,  and  excluding  Indians  not  taxed,  and  adding  three 
fifths  of  all  other  persons"  (a  delicate  way  of  describing  them), 
"  the  governor  be  authorized  and  requested  to  recommend  to 
the  people  of  the  respective  counties  to  elect  five  persons  for 


170  LIFE      OF      ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1796. 

each  county,  to  represent  them  in  convention.,  to  meet  at 
Knoxville,  at  such  time  as  he  shall  judge  proper,  for  the 
purpose  of  forming  a  constitution  or  permanent  form  of 
government." 

In  November  following,  the  governor  announced,  as  the 
result  of  the  census,  that  the  Territory  contained  seventy- 
seven  thousand  two  hundred  and  sixty-two  inhabitants,  of 
whom  ten  thousand  six  hundred  and  thirteen  were  "  all  other 
persons."  He  therefore  called  upon  the  people  to  elect  dele 
gates  to  the  convention  for  making  a  constitution,  and  named 
January  llth,  1796,  as  the  day  for  their  assembling  at  Knox- 
ville.  The  convention  met  accordingly,  fifty-five  members 
in  all,  five  from  each  of  the  eleven  counties.  The  five  mem 
bers  sent  up  from  D^idson  county  were  John  McNairy, 
ANDREW  JACKSON,  James  Robertson,  Thomas  Hardeman 
and  Joel  Lewis.  Thus  we  find  our  young  adventurer,  after 
seven  years'  residence  in  the  Territory,  associated  on  equal 
terms,  in  a  most  honorable  trust,  with  the  judge  of  the  Supe 
rior  Court  and  with  the  father  of  the  Cumberland  settle 
ments.  To  one  of  them,  at  least,  he  was  superior  in  literary 
attainments  ;  for  General  Robertson,  the  wise,  the  brave,  the 
gentle,  was  taught  to  read  by  his  wife  after  his  marriage. 

The  convention  met  in  a  small  building,  which  afterward 
served  as  a  school-house,  standing  in  the  outskirts  of  the  new 
town  of  Knoxville,  surrounded  by  tall  trees  of  the  primeval 
wilderness.  The  building  was  fitted  up  for  the  reception  of 
the  important  assembly  at  an  expense  of  twelve  dollars  and 
sixty- two  cents  ;  ten  dollars  for  seats,  and  the  rest  for  "  three 
and  a  half  yards  of  oil  cloth"  for  the  covering  of  the  table, 
But  the  early  proceedings  of  the  convention  exhibited  a  still 
more  remarkable  example  of  economy.  The  Legislature  had 
fixed  the  compensation  of  the  members  at  two  dollars  and  a 
half  a  day,  but  had  forgotten  to  appropriate  any  compensa 
tion  for  the  secretary,  printer  and  door-keeper.  The  conven 
tion,  therefore,  with  curious  and  quaint  disinterestedness, 
resolved  that,  inasmuch  as  "economy  is  an  amiable  trait  in 
any  government,  and,  in  fixing  the  salaries  of  the  officers 


1796.]  CONSTITUTION      MAKING.  171 

thereof,  the  situation  and  resources  of  the  country  should  be 
attended  to/'  therefore,  one  dollar  and  a  half  per  diem  is 
enough  for  us,  and  no  more  will  any  man  of  us  take,  and 
the  rest  shall  go  to  the  payment  of  the  secretary,  printer, 
door-keeper  and  other  officers. 

The  rules  adopted  by  the  convention  were  similar  to  those 
which  prevail  to  this  day  in  the  British  House  of  Commons. 
These  are  among  the  most  noticeable  : — 

"1.  When  the  Speaker  is  in  the  chair,  every  member  may  sit  in  his 
place  with  his  head  covered. 

''  2.  Every  member  shall  come  into  the  House  uncovered,  and  shall 
continue  so  at  all  times  but  when  he  sits  in  his  place. 

"3.  No  member,  in  coming  into  the  House  or  removing  from  his  place, 
shall  pass  between  the  Speaker  and  a  member  speaking,  nor  shall  any 
member  go  across  the  House,  nor  from  one  part  thereof  to  another,  while 
another  is  speaking." 

"  8.  He  that  digresseth  from  the  subject  to  fall  on  the  person  of  any 
member,  shall  be  suppressed  by  the  Speaker." 

"  18.  Upon  adjournment,  no  member  shall  presume  to  move  until  the 
Speaker  arises  and  goes  before." 

The  convention  being  organized,  it  was  voted  that  the 
"  House  proceed  to  appoint  two  members  from  each  county 
to  draft  a  constitution,  and  that  each  county  name  their 
members."  The  members  from  Davidson  county  selected 
Judge  McNairy  and  Andrew  Jackson  to  represent  them  in 
this  committee.  A  constitution  was  soon  drafted,  and  the 
whole  business  of  the  convention  concluded  in  twenty-seven 
days. 

It  is  a  proof  of  the  progress  of  democratic  principles  in 
the  United  States,  that  a  constitution  containing  such  pro 
visions  as  that  adopted  by  this  convention  should  have  been 
praised  by  Jefferson  and  bewailed  by  the  Federalists,  as  the 
most  republican  one  then  in  existence.  According  to  this 
constitution,  no  man  could  be  a  member  of  the  Legislature 
who  did  not  own  two  hundred  acres  of  land.  A  governor 
must  possess  a  freehold  estate  of  five  hundred  acres.  A  free 
holder  could  vote  .as  soon  as  .he  came  into  a  county,  while  a 


172  LIFE     OF      ANDREW     JACKSON.  [179G. 

man  who  owned  no  land  had  to  reside  six  months  before 
voting.  Clergymen  were  excluded  from  the  Legislature.  The 
first  draft  even  excluded  them  from  "any  civil  or  military 
office  or  place  of  trust  within  this  State."  But,  "  on  motion 
of  Mr.  Carter,  seconded  by  Mr.  Jackson/'  the  article  was 
amended  so  as  to  render  them  ineligible  only  to  seats  in  the 
Legislature.  At  the  same  time,  it  was  provided  that  no  one 
should  be  received  as  a  witness  who  denied  the  existence  of  a 
God  or  disbelieved  in  a  state  of  future  rewards  and  punish 
ments. 

The  debates  of  the  convention  were  neither  published  nor 
reported  ;  nor,  indeed,  was  it  a  debating  body.  The  journal 
shows  that  Jackson  took  an  important,  but  not  a  leading 
part  in  the  proceedings.  There  is  a  tradition  that  it  was  he 
who  suggested  the  present  name  of  the  State.  There  was 
already  a  county  in  the  Territory  named  Tennessee,  the  dele 
gates  from  which  readily  agreed  to  bestow  the  name  upon  the 
State,  and  select  another  for  their  county.  Among  the  few 
motions  "  seconded  by  Mr.  Jackson"  was  one  which  divided 
the  Legislature  into  two  Houses,  a  Senate  and  a  House  of 
Kepresentatives.  Judge  McNairy  was  in  favor  of  one  House, 
and  so  carried  it  ;  but  the  next  day,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Wil 
liam  Cooke,  seconded  by  Jackson,  the  vote  was  reconsidered, 
and  two  Houses  agreed  upon. 

The  claim  of  the  Spaniards  to  the  exclusive  navigation 
of  the  Mississippi  was  a  sore  point  with  all  western  people 
at  this  time,  and  for  many  years  before  and  after.  Through 
the  efforts  of  Mr.  William  Blount,  the  convention  adopted 
into  the  Bill  of  Eights,  as  an  essential  part  thereof,  the 
declaration  that  "an  equal  participation  of  the  free  navigation 
of  the  Mississippi  is  one  of  the  inherent  rights  of  the  citizens 
of  this  State ;  it  can  not,  therefore,  be  conceded  to  any  prince, 
potentate,  pawer,,  person  or  persons  whatever."  Bear  this  in 
mind :  it  belonged  to  a  western  man  of  that  day,  and  from 
that  day  onward  for  twenty  years,  to  execrate  Spaniards. 

And  so  the  constitution  being  formed,  after  twenty-seven 
days'  labor,  the  convention  adjourned,,  taking  a  dollar  and  a 


1796.]  CONSTITUTION     MAKING.  173 

half  a  day  for  their  own  services,  and  paying  their  door-keep 
er  two  dollars  a  day.  Jackson  recrossed  the  "  Cumberland 
Mountain"  and  the  wilderness  lying  beyond  it,  and  returned 
to  his  happy  home. 

The  State  was  promptly  organized.  A  Legislature  was 
elected,  and  "  Citizen  John  Sevier,"  we  are  officially  informed, 
was  chosen  the  first  governor.  Citizen  John  Sevier  !  And 
yet  this  was  after  Kobespierre  had  been  guillotined,  and  Gen 
eral  Bonaparte  had  quelled  the  insurrection  of  Paris.  But 
Tennessee  was  a  very  democratic  State,  and  the  tide  of  a  new 
influence,  or  of  a  reaction,  would  be  late  in  reaching  a  region 
so  remote  from  the  center  of  American  aifairs — Philadelphia, 
Moreover,  Citizen  John  Sevier  appears  to  have  had  federal 
leanings,  for  when  President  Adams  was  preparing  for  war 
with  France,  and  had  appointed  Washington  commander-inT 
chief,  and  Hamilton  inspector  general  and  second  in  com 
mand,  he  nominated  John  Sevier,  of  Tennessee,  one  of  the 
brigadier  generals. 

Colonel  A  very  is  in  error  with  regard  to  the  major  gen 
eralship  of  militia.  Governor  Sevier  never  held  the  office  of 
major  general.  He  was  long  a  brigadier  general ;  which 
office,  upon  his  election  as  governor,  he  at  once  resigned,  and 
George  Butledge  was  elected  in  his  stead.  George  Conway 
was  elected  major  general,  and  he  it  was  whom  Andrew  Jack 
son,  a  few  years  after,  succeeded.* 

On  grounds  purely  technical,  and  for  reasons  chiefly  polit^ 
ical,  the  Federalists  in  Congress  delayed  the  admission  of  re 
publican  Tennessee  into  the  Union  ;  Eufus  King,  of  New 
York,  being  a  conspicuous  opponent,  and  Aaron  Burr  a  lead 
ing  advocate,  of  her  immediate  admission.  But,  on  the  1st 
of  June,  1796,  all  difficulties  were  adjusted,  and  Tennessee- 
became  the  sixteenth  member  of  the  confederacy.  William 
Blount  and  William  Cooke  were  elected  the  first  United 
States  Senators  from  the  new  State.  Three  presidential 
electors  were  chosen,  who  cast  the  vote  of  the  State  for  Jef- 


*  Ramsey's  Tennessee,  p.  667. 
VOL.  I.— — 1.2 


174  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1796. 

fergon  and  Burr.  As  yet,  Tennessee  was  entitled  to  but  one 
member  of  the  House  of  Kepresentatives.  Early  in  the  fall 
of  1796,  Andrew  Jack&on  was  elected  by  tlfe  people  to  serve 
them  in  that  honorable  capacity.  Soon  after — for  the  jour 
ney  was  a  long  one,  and  more  difficult  than  long — he 
mounted  his  horse,  and  set  out  for  Philadelphia,  distant 
nearly  eight  hundred  miles. 

Tennessee  at  that  time  felt  herself  aggrieved  by  the  gen 
eral  government,  and  was  a  claimant  for  redress.  Great  ex 
penses  had  been  incurred  in  sending  troops  against  the  Indi 
ans,  which  expenses,  it  was  feared,  the  general  government 
would  object  to  reimburse,  on  the  ground  that  it  had  not 
authorized,  but  forbidden,  any  invasion  of  the  Indian  terri 
tory.  There  was  also  a  dispute  with  the  Cherokees  upon  the 
everlasting  question  of  boundary,  and  the  government  inclined 
to  side  with  the  Indians,  and  actually  did,  after  Jackson's 
departure,  send  troops  to  Knoxville  to  support  the  Indians 
in  their  demands.  Andrew  Jackson,  as  I  conjecture  (in  the 
absence  of  information)  owed  the  honor  of  being  the  first 
representative  of  Tennessee  in  the  House  of  Kepresentatives, 
to  his  warm  espousal  of  the  claims  of  the  State,  and  to  the 
fact  that  he  was  supposed  to  be  the  very  man  to  support 
those  claims  with  spirit  and  effect  on  the  floor  of  Congress. 

It  is  not  probable,  however,  that  he  was  elected  without 
opposition,  as  there  are  indications,  in  the  scanty  records  of 
the  period,  that  there  were  those  in  the  State  who  regarded 
him  with  no  friendly  eye.  From  the  journal  of  the  Tennes 
see  House  of  Representatives,  it  appears  that,  July  30th,  1796, 
Mr.  Seth  Lewis,  a  member  of  that  body,  moved  for  leave, 
and  presented  a  remonstrance  from  Andrew  Jackson,  stating 
that  the  money  which  had  been  appropriated  for  his  com 
pensation  as  attorney  general  of  the  Territory,  had  been  ex 
pended  for  other  objects,  and  asking  a  further  appropriation 
in  lieu  thereof.  The  remonstrance  was  referred  to  the  Com 
mittee  on  Claims  ;  but  before  the  committee  reported,  the 
amount  claimed  by  the  attorney  general  was  inserted  in  the 
general  compensation  bill.  When  this  bill  came  before  the 


1796.]  THE      TENNESSEE     WILDERNESS.  175 

House,  it  was  moved  by  Mr.  Newall,  and  seconded  by  Mr. 
Gass,  that  "  the  section  making  compensation  to  Andrew 
Jackson  for  his  services  as  attorney  general  during  the  con 
tinuance  of  the  territorial  government/'  be  stricken  out  ; 
\^hich  was  carried,  yeas  ten,  nays  nine.  A  day  or  two  after, 
the  Committee  on  Claims  reported  as  follows  :  "  Your  com 
mittee,  to  whom  was  referred  the  remonstrance  of  Andrew 
Jackson,  are  of  opinion  that  if  the  money  appropriated  by 
law  in  Mero  district  to  the  payment  of  the  attorney,  has 
been  appropriated  to  the  use  of  the  Territory,  that  his  re 
monstrance  is,  in  part,  reasonable,  and  ought  to  be  granted.'' 
The  end  of  the  affair  is  thus  recorded  :  "  On  motion,  the  re 
port  of  the  committee,  to  whom  were  referred  the  remon 
strance  of  Andrew  Jackson,  was  taken  up,  and,  after  some 
debate,  was  concurred  with  by  the  casting  vote  of  the 
Speaker"*  Beyond  these  naked  facts  of  the  disputed  claim, 
nothing  can  now  be  ascertained  respecting  it. 

But  the  new  member  is  on  horseback,  on  his  way  to  the 
seat  of  government — the  great  and  famous  city  of  Phila 
delphia.  The  reader  shall  see  part  of  the  wild  road  he  trav 
eled  on  this  occasion. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

A    LONDONER    IN    THE    TENNESSEE    WILDERNESS. 

To  understand  a  man,  it  is  necessary  to  know  a  good  deal 
of  the  country  which  he  represented.  Before  exhibiting  An 
drew  Jackson  on  the  public  stage,  I  desire  to  afford  the 
reader  a  near  view  of  Tennessee,  as  he  might  himself  have 
seen  it  had  he  traversed  its  entire  length,  at  the  time  when 
Nashville  was  only  a  cluster  of  log-houses,  and  the  country 
generally  "  a  howling  wilderness." 

*  From  MSS.  Notes  of  Colonel  A.  W.  Putnam,  President. of  Tennessee  His 
torical  Society.  ' 


176  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1797. 

In  1796  and  1797,  an  adventurous  young  Englishman 
named  Francis  Baily,  afterwards  a  well-known  and  wealthy 
member  of  the  London  Stock  Exchange,  later  in  life  an 
astronomer  of  note,  founder  and  president  of  the  Royal 
Astronomical  Society,  made  an  extensive  tour  in  the  "  un 
settled  parts  of  the  United  States  of  North  America."  He  was 
a  forerunner  of  the  tribe  of  European  tourists  in  America,  and 
among  the  worthiest  of  the  tribe  ;  for,  in  addition  to  his  being 
a  man  of  knowledge  and  liberal  ideas,  he  traveled  at  a  time 
when  traveling  in  America  was  an  employment  that  tasked 
to  the  uttermost  the  courage  and  endurance  even  of  a  born 
backwoodsman.  It  happened  that  Mr.  Baily,  on  his  return 
to  New  York  from  New  Orleans,  passed  through  a  large  part 
of  Tennessee,  staid  a  few  days  at  Nashville,  and  performed 
that  very  journey  through  the  wilderness,  between  Nashville 
and  Knoxville,  that  Jackson  so  often  traveled  with  such 
various  adventures.  That  journey,  even  in  1797,  was  no 
joke.  Baily 's  narrative  enables  us  to  form  an  idea  what  it 
must  have  been  in  the  earlier  years  of  Jackson's  practice  at 
the  bar. 

From  this  work,  which  is  not  generally  accessible  in  the 
United  States,  I  propose  to  make  a  few  extracts.  Tennessee 
readers,  I  think,  will  be  interested  to  see  their  beautiful 
native  State  as  Francis  Baily  saw  it  in  the  summer  of  1797. 
Other  readers,  it  is  presumed,  will  not  object  to  view,  through 
such  an  honest  pair  of  eyes,  the  country  in  which  Andrew 
Jackson  became  the  man  he  was,  and  which  he  helped  to 
wrest  from  savage  men  and  savage  nature.  I  take  up  Mr. 
Baily' s  story  at  the  point  where  he  has  reached  the  banks  of 
the  Tennessee  river,  sixty  miles  west  of  Nashville,  and  is 
wondering  how  he  shall  cross  a  stream  so  wide  and  swift. 
He  crossed  it  as  Jackson  must  often  have  crossed  it,  as  he  did 
other  rivers  too  wide  to  ford  or  swim.  "  This  river,"  says  the 
tourist,  "  at  the  place  where  we  had  to  cross  it,  was  above  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  wide,  and  flowed  with  so  rapid  a  stream, 
that  it  was  with  difficulty  that  a  person  (breast  high)  could 
stand  against  it ;  at  the  same  time  it  appeared  to  glide  along 


1797.]  THE     TENNESSEE     WILDERNESS.  177 

in  silent  dignity,  with  its  surface  smooth  and  unruffled,  and 
its  body  dark  and  clear,  at  once  proclaiming  the  depth  and 
importance  of  the  current." 

The  only  resource  was  to  take  over  the  baggage  on  rafts, 
and  drive  the  horses  across,  "  as  we  had  been  used  to  do  be~ 
fore/'  Part  of  the  company  succeeded  very  well  in  this  enter 
prise,  though  not  until  after  many  an  hour  of  most  exhausting 
toil.  But  the  future  astronomer  was  not  so  fortunate.  He 
and  his  two  comrades  had  prepared  their  raft,  loaded  it, 
driven  over  their  horses,  launched  the  raft  into  the  swift 
stream,  gained  the  middle  of  the  river ;  two  men  in  front  tow 
ing  the  raft  with  ropes  around  their  shoulders,  and  Mr.  Baily 
performing  the  office  of  a  rudder  behind  it.  But  the  stream 
was  too  much  for  their  strength,  and  ere  long  they  found 
themselves  borne  irresistibly  down  the  river — a  river  twelve 
hundred  miles  long,  its  banks  peopled  with  doubtful  Indians  ! 

"Imagine  us,"  says  the  astronomer,  "  with  this  prospect  before  us,  with 
out  any  hope  of  ever  reaching  our  companions,  our  heads  just  above  water, 
our  hands  clinging  to  the  raft  and  supporting  our  weary  bodies,  our  provi 
sions  before  our  eyes,  but  ourselves  unable  to  touch  them,  as  the  least  dis 
turbance  given  to  our  raft  would  instantly  overwhelm  it ;  so  that  we  were 
in  danger  of  perishing  by  want  in  the  midst  of  plenty  ;  the  trees  and  banks 
flying  beyond  us,  and  ourselves  carried  along  with  an  astonishing  rapidity, 
and  hastening  to  a  river  abounding  with  alligators  and  other  ravenous 
animals,  unable  to  defend  ourselves ; — imagine  this,  and  a  thousand  other 
things  still  more  horrid,  which  fancy  at  the  moment  created,  and  you  will 
have  a  tolerable  idea  of  our  situation  at  this  time.  What  was  to  be  done  ? 
Nothing.  We  were  resigned  to  our  fate,  be  it  good  or  bad  ;  and  even  in 
this  forlorn  situation  could  not  help  being  merry,  and  passing  our  jokes 
upon  each  other.  So  true  is  it,  that  in  the  midst  of  health,  death  did 
not  strike  us  with  the  same  terror  as  when  accompanied  with  a  lingering 
illness. 

"  We  were  now  nearly  wafted  out  of  the  sight  of  our  companions,  who 
stood  on  the  shore  commiserating  our  situation,  but  unable  to  render  us 
any  assistance.  One  of  those  who  were  with  us  jocosely  halloed  out  to 
them,  that  we  were  under  sailing  orders,  and  could  not  stop  to  speak  to 
them,  as  a  breeze  had  just  sprung  up :  I  told  him  I  hoped  the  gale  would 
be  prosperous.  By  this  time  we  had  been  carried  four  or  five  miles  down 
the  stream,  when  one  of  my  companions,  casting  his  eyes  around,  observed 


178  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1797. 

something  near  a  point  of  land  below,  which  he  took  for  some  men  on  the 
water.  As  we  could  not  imagine  what  should  bring  any  human  being  into 
this  quarter  of  the  country,  except  Indians,  whom  we  did  not  expect  to 
see  now,  as  they  were  in  a  state  of  war,  and  consequently  kept  themselves 
very  secret,  we  thought  he  must  be  deceived.  However,  a  few  minutes 
convinced  us  to  the  contrary,  and  clearly  discovered  two  men  of  a  dark 
countenance  in  a  canoe  close  to  the  shore,  working  against  the  stream. 
This,  you  will  say,  was  a  joyful  sight  to  us;  but  we  did  not  regard  it  as 
such  at  first :  for  as  it  is  natural  to  mankind  to  suggest  the  worst,  particu 
larly  in  any  unpleasant  situation,  so  we  immediately  fancied  that  these 
people  were  Creek  Indians — a  nation  almost  continually  at  war  with  the 
Americans,  who,  if  they  discovered  us,  would  actually  murder  us.  Under 
this  idea,  we  were  in  doubt  whether  we  should  hail  them  or  not,  for  we 
were  now  got  pretty  near  to  them,  and  they  could  not  distinguish  our  heads 
from  the  raft,  which  appeared  to  a  person  situated  near  the  shore  like  a 
bundle  of  logs,  or  the  top  of  a  tree  floating  down.  I  used  all  the  arguments 
I  could  to  induce  my  fellow-travelers  to  hail  them,  and  told  them,  that 
thereby  they  might  exchange  what  appeared  to  me  a  prospect  of  certain 
death,  for  a  possibility,  at  least,  of  escape  ;  and  that  if  they  let  this  chance 
pass  by,  they  not  only  would  not  deserve,  but  most  probably  would  not 
meet  with,  another  to  save  them  from  the  danger  that  awaited  them ;  but 
fear  worked  upon  them  so  far,  that  they  said  they  knew  they  were  Creeks, 
and  were  determined  to  continue  on  as  they  were  going.  However,  as  I 
looked  upon  it  almost  as  an  interposition  of  Providence  for  our  safety,  1 
halloed  to  them  as  long  and  as  loud  as  I  could,  when  they  came  opposite 
to  us.  They  looked  about  for  a  long  while,  and  could  not  imagine  from 
whence  the  sound  proceeded;  but  on  my  repeating  it,  and  waving  my 
hand,  I  observed  them  to  push  from  the  shore  and  make  toward  us.  Even 
this  did  not  appease  my  companions :  for  when  the  Indians  took  up  their 
paddles  to  row  toward  us,  they  said  they  had  taken  up  their  guns,  and 
were  going  to  fire  upon  us ;  and  one  of  them  said  he  actually  saw  him  pull 
the  trigger !  ! !  so  astonishingly  does  imagination  work  upon  a  perturbed 
mind.  They  were  not  long  in  approaching  us,  and  we  soon  found  that  they 
were  no  enemies ;  for,  smiling  at  our  situation,  they  came  alongside  and 
took  us  into  the  canoe.  We  then  took  our  baggage  and  the  cord  from  the 
raft,  and  assisted  the  Indians  in  paddling  up  to  the  place  from  whence  we 
set  out,  letting  our  unfortunate  raft  drift  down  the  current — the  sport  of 
the  winds  and  the  waves." 


Having  overcome  this  "  tremendous  obstacle,"  as  Mr. 
Baily  justly  styles  it,  the  party  proceeded  on  their  way  to 
ward  Nashville,  a  distance  of  sixty  or  seventy  miles.  They 


1797.]          THE     TENNESSEE     WILDERNESS.  179 

were  seven  days  in  performing  this  journey,  during  which 
they  came  near  starving — so  destitute  was  that  region  then 
of  inhabitants  and  resources.  Not  a  white  man  did  they 
meet,  nor  any  sign  of  a  civilized  abode,  until  they  came 
within  twelve  miles  of  Nashville.  But,  at  length,  "  the 
path  began  to  widen,  and  assume  the  marks  of  being  much 
frequented  ;  and  soon  after  we  observed  evident  tracks  of 
cows  and  other  animals,  which  plainly  indicated  to  us  that  a 
settlement  was  near  at  hand  ;  and  about  eleven  o'clock,  to 
our  great  happiness  and  comfort,  we  descried  the  first  civil 
ized  habitation  since  our  leaving  Natchez.  Nothing  could 
exceed  our  joy  upon  this  occasion  ;  we  jumped,  halloed,  and 
appeared  as  elated  as  if  we  had  succeeded  to  the  greatest  es 
tate  imaginable.  It  was  not  long  ere  we  approached  the 
door  of  this  auspicious  mansion  ;  but  we  met  with  a  repulse 
which  at  first  diminished  somewhat  the  pleasure  with  which 
we  were  before  transported. 

aAn  old  woman  came  to  the  door,  and  told  us  that  the 
settlement  was  but  just  formed  ;  and  that  therefore  she  could 
afford  us  no  shelter  nor  provisions  ;  but  that  there  was  an 
other  well-established  plantation  about  a  mile  and  a  half 
further  on,  where  we  might  meet  with  refreshment,  etc. 
This  latter  sentence  revived  us  again,  and  we  once  more  pur 
sued  our  journey  to  the  desired  spot.  We  soon  approached 
it,  and  entering  the  yard  saw  the  horses  of  our  late  compan 
ions  ranging  about  in  a  field  near  the  house.  This  was  an 
agreeable  sight  to  us,  as  it  was  one  trouble  off  our  minds  : 
and  it  was  not  long  ere  they  themselves  came  out  to  meet  us, 
and  congratulate  us  on  our  entry  into  civilized  life.  We 
were  not  far  behind  them,  for  they  had  arrived  there  only 
this  morning,  and  had  immediately  ordered  something  to  be 
got  ready  for  a  meal. 

"  This  plantation  belongs  to  a  Mr.  Joslin  ;  it  is  situated 
about  six  or  seven  miles  from  Nashville,  and  is  one  of  the 
last  settlements  on  the  path  toward  the  wilderness.  It  has 
been  formed  about  seven  or  eight  years,  and  consisted  of  sev 
eral  acres  of  land  tolerably  well  cultivated ;  some  in  corn 


180  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1797. 

some  in  meadow,  and  others  in  grain,  etc.  His  house  was 
formed  of  logs,  built  so  as  to  command  a  view  of  the  whole 
plantation,  and  consisted  of  only  two  rooms  ;  one  of  which 
served  for  all  the  purposes  of  life,  and  the  other  to  hold  lum 
ber,  etc." 

After  devouring  their  meal  of  glorious  pork  and  beans, 
the  Londoner  kept  on  his  way  to  the  town.  When  he  got 
a  little  nearer  the  place,  he  found  the  houses  and  plantations 
more  and  more  frequent. 

"  We  even  met  within  three  or  four  miles  of  the  town,  two  coaches 
fitted  up  in  all  the  style  of  Philadelphia  or  New  York,  besides  other  car 
riages,  which  plainly  indicated  that  a  spirit  of  refinement  and  luxury  had 
made  its  way  into  this  settlement.  As  we  approached  the  town,  the  plan 
tations  on  either  side  of  the  road  began  to  assume  a  more  civilized  appear 
ance,  yet  still  not  such  as  one  observes  in  the  neighborhood  of  large  towns 
and  cities.  It  was  near  seven  o'clock  when  we  reached  Nashville.  The 
sight  of  it  gave  us  great  pleasure,  as,  after  so  long  an  absence  from  any  com 
pact  society  of  this  kind,  we  viewed  the  several  buildings  with  a  degree  of 
satisfaction  and  additional  beauty  which  none  can  conceive  but  those  who 
have  undergone  the  same  circumstances.  We  inquired  for  the  best  tavern 
in  the  place;  and  having  ascertained  where  it  lay,  we  hastened  to  it,  and, 
giving  our  horses  to  (he  ostler,  entered  the  house  and  sat  down,  completely 
happy  in  having  performed  this  laborious  and  troublesome  journey. 

"  We  had  still,  however,  another  wilderness  to  go  through  ere  we 
arrived  at  the  settled  parts  of  the  United  States ;  but  as  this  town  was  a 
kind  of  resting  place  for  us,  we  did  not  look  forward  to  any  further  diffi 
culties  and  dangers,  but  considered  our  journey  as  at  an  end.  In  fact,  the 
principal  part  of  it  was,  for  now  I  had  not  much  more  than  a  thousand 
miles  further  to  go ;  but  this  I  had  to  travel  by  myself,  as  my  companion 
left  me  at  this  place,  in  order  to  proceed  to  Kentucky,  whereas  my  route 
lay  through  Knoxville,  on  the  Holstein  river.  Next  day, 

"  Tuesday,  August  lst} — I  went  round  to  view  the  town,  found  it 
pleasantly  situated  on  the  south-west  bank  of  the  Cumberland  river,  and 
elevated  above  its  bed  about  eighty  or  one  hundred  feet.  The  river  here 
is  about  two  hundred  yards  wide.  The  country  all  around  consists  of  a 
layer  of  fine  black  mold  on  a  bed  of  limestone,  which  in  many  places  pro 
jects  through  the  surface,  and  shows  itself  in  dark  gray  protuberances.  In 
the  year  1780,  a  small  colony,  under  the  direction  of  James  Robertson, 
crossed  the  mountains  and  settled  in  this  place ;  but  it  was  not  till  within 
these  few  years  that  it  could  be  called  a  place  of  any  importance. 


1797.]         THE     TENNESSEE     WILDERNESS.  181 

*•  This  town  contains  about  sixty  or  eighty  families ;  the  houses  (which 
are  chiefly  of  logs  and  frame)  stand  scattered  over  the  whole  site  of  the 
town,  so  that  it  appears  larger  than  it  actually  is.  The  inhabitants  (like  all 
those  in  the  new  settled  towns)  are  chiefly  concerned  in  some  way  of  busi 
ness  ;  a  storekeeper  is  the  general  denomination  for  such  persons,  and  under 
this  head  you  may  include  every  one  who  buys  and  sells.  There  are  two 
or  three  taverns  in  this  place,  but  the  principal  one  is  kept  by  Major  Lewis. 
There  we  met  with  good  fare,  but  very  poor  accommodations  for  lodgings ; 
three  or  four  beds  of  the  roughest  construction  in  one  room,  which  was 
open  at  all  hours  of  the  night  for  the  reception  of  any  rude  rabble  that  had 
a  mind  to  put  up  at  the  house ;  and  if  the  other  beds  happened  to  be  occu 
pied,  you  might  be  surprised  when  you  awoke  in  the  morning  to  find  a 
bed-fellow  by  your  side  whom  you  had  never  seen  before,  and  perhaps 
might  never  see  again.  All  complaint  is  unnecessary,  for  you  are  imme 
diately  silenced  by  that  all-powerful  argument — the  custom  of  the  country, 
and  an  inability  to  remedy  it;  or  perhaps  your  landlord  may  tell  you  that 
if  you  do  not  like  it,  you  are  at  liberty  to  depart  as  soon  as  you  please. 
Having  long  been  taught  to  put  up  with  inconveniences,  I  determined  for 
the  future  to  take  things  as  I  found  them,  and  if  I  could  not  remedy  them, 
to  be  content.  Besides,  I  did  not  feel  the  ill  effects  of  this  rough  accom 
modation  so  much  as  other  persons  might  in  traveling  from  a  more  civilized 
part  of  the  world,  because  every  thing  which  was  beyond  a  piece  of  bread 
and  bacon,  and  the  cold  hard  ground,  appeared  to  me  as  a  luxury. 

"  I  know  no  other  particulars  of  this  place,  except  that  it  is  the  princi 
pal  town  in  this  western  division  of  the  State;  and  that  the  country  about 
is  pretty  well  settled,  considering  the  time  since  its  first  establishment : 
what  other  particulars  you  may  wish  to  know  of  this  new  State,  you  may 
learn  in  Morse  or  Imlay.  There  are  several  other  little  towns  in  the  neigh 
borhood  ;  in  fact,  the  banks  of  the  Cumberland  river,  on  both  sides,  are  well 
cultivated  for  a  considerable  distance.  Major  Nelson,  who  boarded  with 
me  at  Major  Lewis's,  is  forwarding  a  settlement,  and  laying  off  a  town  at 
the  head  of  Harper's  creek,  about  twenty-five  miles  off,  where  he  sells  his 
half-acre  town  lots  for  ten  dollars,  and  his  out  lots  of  ten  acres  for  thirty 
dollars,  on  the  condition  that  improvements  are  to  be  made,  and  a  house 
built  within  two  years.  The  price  of  land  about  the  vicinity  of  this  place, 
unimproved,  is  from  one  to  four  and  five  dollars,  according  to  its  situa 
tion  and  neighborhood. 

"  I  did  intend  to  have  waited  at  Nashville  for  some  time,  in  order  to 
rest  my  horse ;  but  not  being  able  to  find  any  person  in  the  neighborhood 
who  had  a  good  pasture,  and  being  rather  tired  of  my  lodgings,  I  deter 
mined  to  proceed.  My  course  now  was  towards  Knoxville,  a  town  lying 
on  the  Holstein  river.  Between  Nashville  and  that  place,  I  have  already 
told  you,  there  is  a  wilderness  about  three  hundred  miles  long,  which  I  had 


182  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1797. 

to  cross.  This  wilderness  properly  commences  about  sixty-two  miles  from 
Nashville,  though  the  whole  of  that  distance  is  scarcely  better  than  a 
wilderness,  after  you  proceed  about  half  a  dozen  miles  from  town ;  for  the 
houses  are  so  far  apart  from  each  other,  that  you  seldom  see  more  than  two 
or  three  in  a  day.  I  was  determined  also  in  starting  so  soon,  by  the  idea 
that  I  should  meet  with  a  plantation  on  the  road,  where  I  should  find  a 
pasture,  and  where  I  should  accordingly  stop  and  refresh  my  horses ;  for 
there  is  no  part  of  these  new  settlements  but  you  may  take  this  liberty,  if 
you  pay  them  well  for  it;  the  idea  of  their  being  hospitable  and  doing  a 
kindness  to  strangers  for  nothing  is  false.  This  hospitality  is  only  shown 
to  neighbors,,  etc.,  where  they  expect  it  will  be  repaid  by  the  same  return, 
and  arises  from  a  want  of  inns  on  the  road,  where  travelers  may  call  and 
do  as  they  please." 

On  the  2d  of  August,  he  mounted  one  horse,  and  led 
another  loaded  with  baggage,  and  started  alone  upon  his  way 
eastward,  pursuing  the  same  paths  as  those  which  Jackson 
had  traveled  a  few  months  before,  when  he  went  to  Congress. 

"  I  directed  my  steps  toward  the  water  side.  (Cumberland  river,)  and 
being  put  across  by  the  ferryman  to  the  opposite  shore,  (for  which  I  paid 
him  one-sixteenth  of  a  dollar,)  I  kept  the  main  path  through  the  woods, 
(as  I  was  directed,)  and  made  the  best  of  my  way  to  a  Mr.  Blackamoor's, 
distant  about  nine  miles,  where  I  intended  to  sleep  that  night.  The 
gloomy  and  majestic  scenery  of  the  surrounding  objects,  you  would  be 
apt  to  imagine,  would  excite  a  degree  of  melancholy  in  a  person  not  used 
to  such  scenes ;  but  this  was  not  the  case  with  me.  By  a  frequent  fa 
miliarity  with  such  objects,  I  had  become  callous  to  their  ill  effects,  and 
indulged  only  those  ideas  which  afforded  the  highest  pleasure  and  the 
most  grateful  contemplation.  Surrounded  on  each  side  with  a  deep  wall 
of  woods,  I  enjoyed  the  serenity  of  the  evening  in  silent  meditation: 
every  thing  which  I  saw  and  heard  taught  me  a  lesson  winch  required  not 
the  powers  of  oratory  to  embellish  it.  So  soon  as  the  sun  had  taken  his 
station  below  the  horizon,  the  moon  began  to  spread  her  silver  light,  and 
to  shine  in  silent  majesty  through  the  openings  of  the  trees :  and  it  was  by 
her  kind  assistance  that  I  reached  my  destined  port;  for,  by  my  ignorance 
of  the  way,  I  had  mistaken  the  path,  and  (wandering  about  the  woods 
without  a  guide)  did  not  reach  my  place  of  destination  till  between  eight 
and  nine  o'clock.  I  approached  the  house,  and  found  that  I  could  be  ac 
commodated  with  lodging  there ;  accordingly  I  unpacked  my  horses,  and 
taking  the  baggage  within  doors,  I  led  them  to  the  field,  and  gave  them 
some  corn.  I  then  began  to  inquire  for  something  for  my  own  supper ; 


1797.]  THE     TENNESSEE     WILDERNESS  183 

but  was  informed  that  I  could  have  nothing  but  some  Indian  bread  and 
butter,  and  some  milk,  which  is  a  standing  dish  in  all  these  new  countries. 
Accordingly,  I  sat  down  to  this  rough  fare,  and  having  made  a  hearty 
meal,  went  and  sat  in  the  open  air  to  enjoy  the  serenity  of  the  evening ; 
and  when  the  time  came  for  retiring  to  rest,  I  took  my  blankets  out  and 
spread  them  on  the  hard  ground,  though  there  was  a  very  good  bed  pre 
pared  for  me  within  doors.  But  habit  has  such  an  influence  over  the 
human  mind,  that  this  mode  of  sleeping  (which  at  one  time  appeared  very 
rough  and  unpleasant)  was  now  the  preferable  of  the  two ;  and  I  adopted 
it  as  the  most  agreeable.  In  the  morning — 

"  Thursday,  August  3d, — When  I  came  to  discharge  my  reckoning,  I 
found  they  had  the  impudence  to  charge  me  a  dollar  for  this  rough  accom 
modation  ;  that  is,  for  a  little  bread  and  butter,  and  some  corn  my  horses 
had  eaten.  I  could  not  but  be  angry  at  this  imposition ;  but  as  there  was 
no  remedy,  and  as  I  disliked  any  altercation,  I  gave  them  the  money  and  de 
parted.  As  I  expected  to  meet  with  settlements  in  different  places  on  my 
way,  I  had  not  laid  in  any  provisions,  but  depended  merely  upon  what  I 
could  get  at  these  settlements :  however,  I  soon  found  that  I  reckoned 
without  my  host;  for  I  proceeded  the  whole  of  this  morning  without  being 
able  to  obtain  a  morsel  of  anything  to  eat.  I  called  at  almost  every  plan 
tation  I  saw,  but  they  were  so  poor,  or  so  distressed  for  provisions  them 
selves,  that  1  could  get  nothing.  About  the  middle  of  the  day  I  saw  a 
mill  at  a  short  distance.  Here,  I  thought,  there  was  no  fear  of  not  getting 
something.  Accordingly  I  hurried  on  to  the  place ;  but  how  great  was  my 
surprise  to  find  these  people  in  the  same  unfortunate  situation,  and  that 
the  mill,  owing  to  the  dryness  of  the  season,  had  not  been  in  motion  some 
months !  To  make  the  case  still  worse,  I  understood  there  was  but  one 
more  settlement  for  a  considerable  distance.  I  accordingly  hastened  to 
this  place ;  but  they  pleaded  the  same  excuse.  However,  after  a  great 
deal  of  entreaty,  I  got  them  to  give  me  a  piece  of  bread  which  they  had 
left  at  their  morning's  meal ;  therefore,  hastening  with  this  down  to  a  brook 
which  ran  by  the  side  of  the  house,  I  sat  me  down  upon  a  log  and  made 
a  comfortable  breakfast.  Alas !  cried  I,  if  mankind  did  but  know  how 
little  would  satisfy  them,  they  would  not  pursue  so  eagerly  the  bubble 
riches ;  which  as  often  brings  discontent  and  unhappiness,  as  it  does  the 
mer.ns  of  satisfying  their  inordinate  passions.  If  we  take  a  view  round 
the  world,  how  often  do  we  see  that  fortune  scatters  her  favors  on  the 
most  worthless  objects,  and  that  happiness  (the  end  and  aim  of  every  one) 
by  no  means  keeps  pace  with  an  increase  of  wealth !  And  I,  with  my 
crust  steeped  in  the  pure  spring  of  nature,  am  as  happy  and  contented  as 
the  proudest  monarch  that  sits  upon  a  throne.  You  will  excuse  this 
digression ;  but  as  you  wished  for  a  faithful  detail  of  my  journey,  you 
must  be  content  to  receive  all  the  remarkable  impressions  which  were 


184  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1797. 

made  upon  my  mind — to  receive  not  only  the  outward  and  visible,  but  also 
the  inward  and  spiritual. 

"  Having  suffered  my  horses  to  graze  about  a  little,  and  to  eat  some 
corn  which  I  had  purchased  at  the  house,  I  resumed  my  course  once  more, 
and  at  about  eight  o'clock  got  to  Mr.  Kirby's,  (distant  from  Blackamoor's 
eighteen  miles.)  Here  I  found  a  great  difficulty  to  gain  admittance. 
There  was  no  one  at  home  but  the  woman  of  the  house  and  some  of  the 
servants.  She  said  her  husband  was  gone  out,  and  she  did  not  know 
whether  he  would  return  that  night  or  not ;  and  that  he  would  be  very 
angry  if  she  suffered  any  one  to  sleep  there  when  he  was  absent.  From 
the  current  of  the  poor  woman's  discourse,  I  perceived  her  husband  was 
jealous  of  her ;  and  as  there  was  no  other  plantation  near  this  place,  I 
wished,  both  for  her  sake  and  my  own,  that  he  would  arrive.  Whilst  I 
was  putting  up  this  pious  ejaculation,  who  should  appear  at  the  gates  but 
the  very  man  himself;  and  as  this  removed  all  the  charms  of  bolts  and 
bars,  I  unpacked  my  horse,  and  led  him  away  to  the  pasture.  As  to  my 
self,  I  returned  and  made  such  another  meal  as  I  did  last  night ;  and  that 
done,  I  took  my  blankets  out  of  dooi's,  and  lay  down  in  the  open  air  till 
morning, 

"  Friday,  August  4ffi, — When  I  started  pretty  early,  and  got  to  Major 
Blackamoor's  (three  miles)  to  breakfast.  Here  I  found  a  good  pasture  for 
my  horses,  and  tolerably  good  accommodations  for  myself;  and  the  people 
of  the  house  appearing  very  civil,  I  resolved  upon  stopping  here  for  a  week 
or  ten  days  in  order  to  relieve  my  horses. 

"  The  Major  was  one  of  those  early  emigrants  who  had  come  here  at 
the  first  settling  of  the  country ;  he  had  got  a  good  deal  of  land  about  him,  a 
groat  part  of  which  was  in  a  rude  state  of  cultivation.  His  house  remained 
the  same  as  when  it  was  first  built,  and  of  course  cut  no  very  striking 
figure ;  but  as  it  was  like  all  the  rest  in  this  country,  its  uncouth  appear 
ance  and  rough  accommodation  escape  particular  attention.  Its  situation 
was  about  two  or  three  miles  to  the  northward  of  the  Cumberland  river, 
and  the  soil  consisted  of  a  rich  earth  lying  on  a  bed  of  limestone,  which 
pervades  the  whole  of  this  country.  Mr.  Blackamoor  is  a  major  in  the 
militia,  and  possesses  several  negroes  under  him,  who  work  upon  the 
plantation :  in  fact,  the  whole  drudgery  (both  of  house  and  field)  is  com 
mitted  to  the  slaves,  under  the  superintendence  of  the  master.  I  have 
already  observed  to  you  that  there  are  few  or  no  taverns  in  these  newly- 
settled  countries ;  but  that  almost  all  the  farmers  who  live  near  the  road 
will  take  in  strangers  and  travelers,  giving  them  what  is  called  '  dry  en 
tertainment,'  that  is,  board  and  lodging,  but  without  any  spirituous  liquors. 
For  this  entertainment  they  generally  take  care  to  charge  enough,  as  I 
have  also  remarked  elsewhere. 

"  Major  Blackamoor  was  one  of  these  gentlemen,  though  I  must  con- 


1797.]  THE     TENNESSEE     WILDERNESS.  185 

fess  that  his  charges  were  more  moderate  than  many*  I  had  witnessed.  1 
stopped  here  about  a  week,  when  on 

"  Thursday,  August  Wth,  a  Mr.  Davidson,  of  Kentucky,  happened  to 
stop  to  dine  here ;  and  informed  me  that  he  was  on  his  way  to  Knoxville, 
and  wished  for  some  one  to  accompany  him.  As  this  was  the  route  I  was 
pursuing,  I  embraced  the  opportunity,  and  told  him  we  had  better  proceed 
together,  to  which  he  consented  ;  and  having  mentioned  it  to  our  host,  he 
promised  to  get  us  some  provisions  ready  for  our  journey;  for  we  were 
now  arrived  at  a  point  on  the  road  where  we  could  not  expect  to  derive 
much  assistance  in  this  way  from  the  inhabitants,  as  they  were  all  new 
settlers,  and  had  scarcely  sufficient  to  keep  themselves.  Accordingly,  the 
next  morning, — 

"  Friday,  August  11th, — having  put  up  a  sufficient  quantity  of  beef, 
bacon,  flour,  &c.,  (the  common  provisions  upon  such  occasions,)  we  started 
together  rather  early.  We  had  not  proceeded  many  miles  ere  we  stopped 
at  a  house  where  Davidson  met  with  some  of  his  relations,  who  prevailed 
upon  him  to  stop  with  them  a  few  days,  and  said  that  they  would  accom 
pany  him.  He  consented,  and  told  me  that  he  could  not  proceed  on  with 
me  unless  I  would  wait  for  him ;  but  I  (not  wishing  to  delay  any  longer) 
took  my  leave  of  him,  and  continued  on  my  way  by  myself,  determined  to 
cross  the  wilderness  alone,  if  I  should  not  meet  with  any  one  to  accom 
pany  me.  I  traveled  on  till  about  half-past  five,  when  I  came  to  a  small 
creek  which  I  was  told  (when  I  set  out)  was  eight  miles  from  the  ferry. 
As  I  had  now  passed  all  the  settlements  except  the  one  at  the  ferry,  (which 
I  could  not  reach  that  night,)  I  determined  to  halt  here,  as  there  was  a 
nice  clear  stream,  and  plenty  of  cane  and  grass  for  my  horses.  I  accord 
ingly  crossed  the  creek,  and  alighted  at  a  spot  which  I  observed  had  been 
used  for  the  same  purposes  before.  The  first  thing  I  did  was  to  collect 
plenty  of  wood  together  and  to  kindle  a  fire :  this  I  soon  accomplished. 
I  then  went  to  the  stream,  and  filling  my  tin  cup  with  water,  hung  it  over 
the  fire  and  made  me  some  coffee,  at  the  same  time  opening  my  wallet, 
and  laying  out  all  my  provisions.  I  then  sat  me  down  upon  the  ground, 
and  made  a  hearty  and  a  comfortable  meal;  and  after  roving  about  to  en 
joy  the  wildness  of  the  place,  returned  to  my  fire,  and  spreading  my  blan- 

*  None  of  the  houses  in  this  part  of  the  world  are  built  higher  than  the 
ground  floor ;  and  the  flooring  (if  any)  is  made  of  very  rough  boards  laid  on  the 
ground,  sometimes  on  joists,  and  sometimes  not ;  but  always  with  great  holes 
between  the  planks.  When  I  was  at  this  man's  house,  one  of  the  slaves  saw  an 
enormous  snake  gliding  under  my  bed,  and  passing  through  one  of  these  holes 
in  the  floor.  The  Major,  to  my  comfort,  told  me  that  they  sometimes  got  into 
tho  bed,  but  that  they  would  not  hurt  me.  So  soon  does  custom  get  the  better 
of  tb>jse  things,  that  he  did  not  seem  to  care  much  about  it. 


186  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1797. 

ket,  lay  me  down  to  rest.  This  was  the  first  night  I  had  ever  slept  out  in 
the  woods  alone  ;  I  therefore  could  not  but  remark  my  own  feelings  upon 
the  occasion.  I  expected  that  it  would  have  appeared  more  dismal  and 
melancholy  than  it  really  did;  b'.t,  whether  I  had  become  callous  to  all 
those  ideal  apprehensions  which  we  are  too  often  disposed  to  anticipate 
without  any  cause,  or  whether  I  was  in  that  temper  of  mind  not  to  regard 
the  gloominess  and  loneliness  of  the  place  in  which  I  was,  I  cannot  pretend 
to  say ;  but  certain  it  is,  that  I  laid  down  with  all  the  composure  imagina 
ble,  and  slept  very  soundly,  without  ever  once  waking,  till  the  morning. 

"  Saturday,  August  12th. — Started  by  daylight  on  my  journey,  and 
proceeded  on  to  the  ferry.  When  I  came  within  two  miles  of  the  place  I 
was  brought  to  the  brow  of  the  high  lands  on  which  I  had  been  traveling 
all  this  time.  From  this  spot  I  had  a  most  delightful  view  of  the  surround 
ing  country,  and  of  the  distant  hills  which  border  upon  the  Cumberland, 
presenting  a  wild,  mountainous  appearance,  which  could  not  fail  to  interest 
the  spectator.  Having  descended  into  the  bottom,  I  passed  one  or  two 
habitations,  and  at  last  came  to  the  ferry  house,  where  I  stopped,  and  giv 
ing  my  horses  some  corn,  took  breakfast  with  my  host,  who  furnished  me 
with  coffee  and  some  fried  rashers  of  bacon,  served  up  with  Indian  bread : 
a  common  breakfast  in  this  part  of  the  country,  where  nothing  better  is  to 
be  had.  This  man's  house  stands  immediately  upon  the  banks  of  the 
river ;  and  to  the  advantage  of  cultivating  his  own  plantation,  he  unites 
the  profits  of  the  ferry.  The  river  is  here  one  hundred  and  seventy  yards 
wide ;  and  a  little  distance  below  the  house  a  stream  called  "  The  Caney 
Fork"  comes  in.  This  is  a  considerable  branch  of  the  Cumberland  river, 
and  is  so  called  from  the  quantity  of  cane  brakes  on  its  banks.  This  spot 
is  sixty-two  miles  from  Nashville  by  land,  though  by  water  it  is  one  hun 
dred  and  thirty.  I  was  ferried  across  here  about  ten  o'clock  I  paid  one 
eighth  of  a  dollar  for  each  horse,  though  at  Nashville  I  only  paid  one  six 
teenth.  It  is  customar}'-  not  to  charge  any  thing  for  the  passenger,  only 
for  his  horses.  I  was  landed  on  the  opposite  shore,  exactly  on  the  point 
of  land  where  the  two  rivers  met.  The  prospect  from  the  middle  of  the 
stream  was  delightful :  you  appeared  in  the  centre  of  three  grand  rivers, 
whose  banks  were  everywhere  formed  of  lofty  eminences,  towering  over 
each  other  with  a  kind  of  majestic  pride,  and  covered  with  verdure  to  their 
very  summits. 

"  On  leaving  this  mansion,  I  took  my  farewell  of  all  kind  of  society  till 
I  arrived  at  the  opposite  side  of  the  wilderness.  I  ascended  the  banks 
with  my  two  horses,  and  striking  into  the  woods,  directed  my  steps  the 
nearest  way  to  my  desired  port.  I  had  now  no  prospect  before  me  but  of 
traversing  the  howling  desert  by  myself,  and  of  wandering  alone  and  un 
protected  through  this  dreary  wilderness.  Owing  to  the  frequent  com 
munication  which  is  commonly  kept  up  between  the  eastern  and  western 


1797.]  THE      TENNESSEE     WILDERNESS.  187 

parts  of  this  State,  I  found  no  great  difficulties  in  ascertaining  the  right 
path,  though  sometimes  I  have  been  in  very  disagreeable  dilemmas  on 
this  head.  Not  far  from  the  ferry,  I  met  with  a  party  of  travelers  going 
to  Nashville.  We  stopped  and  had  some  little  conversation  together,  and 
then  separated,  and  each  pursued  his  destined  route.  They  wondered 
very  much  to  see  me  by  myself  in  the  woods,  and  recommended  me  to 
wait  for  company. 

"  Towards  the  afternoon  I  ascended  one  of  those  high  hills  with  whi'jh 
these  rivers  are  surrounded.  I  had  understood  it  was  a  very  long  and  a 
very  difficult  one ;  and  that  I  should  find  but  one  spring  of  water  through 
out  the  whole  distance  of  it,  which  if  I  passed,  I  should  not  meet  wTith  any 
more  till  I  descended  a  considerable  way  into  the  valley.  The  day  was 
very  hot,  and  both  my  horses  and  myself  consequently  very  dry.  I 
watched  very  narrowly  for  the  spring,  which  issued  from  the  side  of  the 
mountain,  and  actually  descended  several  paths  which  appeared  to  lead 
me  down  to  it ;  but,  fruitless  in  my  search,  I  determined  to  pursue  my 
journey,  and  not  to  stop  till  I  reached  the  brook  in  the  valley. 

"Night  came  on,  and  I  had  not  yet  reached  the  brow  of  this  moun 
tain  ;  but  in  about  an  hour  after  dark  I  found  myself  on  the  descent,  and, 
soon  after,  reached  the  valley  below.  Overcome  with  the  fatigue  of  this' 
troublesome  journey,  I  would  willingly  have  laid  me  down  to  rest  at  the 
foot  of  the  mountain,  and  suffered  my  horses  to  have  refreshed  themselves 
with  the  pasture  they  should  find  there  ;  but  the  pains  of  extreme  thirst, 
which  had  not  been  allayed  since  the  morning,  were  too  powerful  to  be 
neglected ;  I  was  therefore  obliged  to  proceed.  The  afternoon  had  been 
beautifully  fine,  and  gave  reason  for  indulging  the  hope  of  an  equally  pro 
pitious  day  on  the  morrow ;  but  alas !  scarce  had  the  sun  set  below  the 
horizon  ere  I  perceived  the  clouds  begin  to  assemble  together  and  to  indi 
cate  an  approaching  storm ;  to  heighten  the  scene,  also,  I  heard  the  rumb 
ling  noise  of  distant  thunder,  and,  soon  after,  perceived  the  faint  flashes  of 
the  fiery  lightning.  I  thought  the  elements  were  very  unkind  to  me  the 
first  night  of  my  embarking  in  the  wilderness  alone  ;  yet,  as  I  had  long 
before  this  learned  to  bear  the  sports  of  fortune,  I  resolved,  also,  not  to 
suffer  this  little  deviation  from  the  smooth  track  to  ruffle  my  temper.  I 
therefore  pursued  my  course  without  an  unpleasant  or  discordant  thought. 

"  I  continued  on  till  I  found  the  thunder  and  lightning  increase  upon 
me.  It  was  now  near  ten  o'clock,  and  dark  as  pitch,  save  when  the  vivid 
flashes  kindly  lent  me  a  ray  of  light  to  help  me  on  my  way.  I  had  observed 
no  signs  of  water,  and,  fearful  that  I  should  not  be  able  to  kindle  a  fire  if  I 
continued  on  till  the  rain  descended,  I  determined,  parched  as  I  was  with 
thirst,  to  stop  and  take  up  my  abode  for  the  night. 

"  I  got  together  all  the  wood  I  could  discover  near  me,  and,  kindling  a 
fire  large  eiv  >ugh  to  roast  an  ox,  and  which  I  thought  might  be  able  to 


188  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1797. 

withstand  any  rain  which  might  fall,  spread  my  blanket  and  lay  down  to 
rest.  I  had  scarce  accomplished  all  this  ere  the  storm  approached  upon 
me.  The  lightning  began  to  be  more  frequent,  and  the  rain  to  descend, 
and  in  such  torrents  did  it  come  down,  that  this  vast  flame,  whioh  I  had 
so  lately  kindled,  was  soon  extinguished.  The  rain  refreshed  me  very 
much,  and,  regardless,  of  all  the  bustle  about  me,  and  the  state  of  darkness 
in  which  I  was  now  left,  I  fell  fast  asleep,  wrapped  up  in  my  blanket,  and 
having  my  head  reclining  upon  a  log  of  wood  for  a  pillow.  In  this  situ 
ation,  overcome  with  fatigue,  and  'indifferent  in  my  choice  to  live  or  die,' 
I  weathered  out  this  storm,  and  slept  very  soundly  till  three  or  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  when  I  awoke  and  found  the  elements  had  not  ceased  their 
contest,  but  were  still  warring  against  each  other  in  all  the  impetuosity 
and  rage  of  two  discordant  enemies.  As  to  myself,  I  observed  that  I  was 
nearly  covered  with  water,  for  I  had  chosen  a  hollow  place,  which  served 
as  a  bed  for  both  me  and  the  water,  and,  had  I  continued  there  much 
longer,  it  would  have  approached  my  head.  You  will  naturally  conceive 
that  this  drove  away  all  sensations  of  thirst :  it  did  so,  and  I  awoke  very 
much  relieved  from  that  inconvenience  ;  and,  rising  from  my  bed  and 
wringing  my  blankets,  went  and  lay  down  on  a  higher  spot  of  ground,  and 
slept  very  soundly  till  morning, 

"  Sunday,  August  13th, — When  I  awoke  and  found  every  cloud  dis 
persed,  and  the  sun  rising  beautifully  in  the  east.  This  agreeable  contrast 
with  the  preceding  night  induced  me  to  say,  with  Othello, 

" '  If  after  every  storm  there  comes  such  calm,'  etc., 

and  I  '  proceeded  on  my  course  rejoicing.'  I  had  not  gone  far  before  1 
came  to  the  little  rivulet  which  I  had  been  seeking  so  long :  but  now,  as 
all  thirst  was  departed,  I  passed  it  without  scarcely  deigning  to  look  at  it. 

"About  nine  or  ten  o'clock  I  ascended  the  Cumberland  mountains. 
These  mountains  are  a  spur  from  the  Alleghany,  and  separate  from  them 
about  the  middle  of  Virginia,  proceeding  in  a  south-western  direction,  and 
giving  rise  to  several  famous  rivers,  all  of  which  flow  into  the  Ohio,  and 
water  the  new  States  of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky.  They  are  not  quite  so 
high  as  the  Alleghany  mountains,  and,  at  the  place  where  I  passed  over 
them,  they  are  about  fifty  miles  across,  and,  in  some  places,  are  perfectly 
level  at  top,  watered  with  fine  streams,  and  affording  many  excellent  situ 
ations  for  plantations,  agreeably  to  what  I  have  already  said  of  the  Alle 
ghany  mountains.  There  is  one  place  in  particular,  called  the  Crab  Orchard, 
which  is  ten  miles  from  the  east  foot  of  the  mountains,  and  at  the  west  foot 
of  the  Spenser's  Hill,  which  I  will  describe  when  I  arrive  at  it. 

"  My  first  approach  to  these  mountains  was  along  a  plain  almost  void 
of  trees,  and  covered  entirely  with  grass ;  and  at  the  termination  I  saw  the 
base  of  the  mountains,  ranged  in  majestic  order  before  me,  bidding  defiance 


1797.]  THE     TENNESSEE     WILDERNESS.  189 

o  my  approach,  and  indicating  the  difficulties  I  should  have  to  encounter 
in  the  accomplishment.  I  was  obliged  to  dismount  from  rny  horse  to 
ascend  these  steep  eminences.  I  observed  the  soil  to  be  composed  of  a 
red  earth,  which  made  the  hill  appear  as  if  there  had  been  a  quantity  of 
bricks  broken  and  scattered  about.  The  rain  had  made  it  very  slippery, 
which  rendered  it  very  unpleasant.  It  was  near  an  hour  before  I  got  to 
the  top  of  this  first  hill,  which  was  a  prelude  to  what  I  had  to  encounter, 
for  I  observed,  at  some  distance,  the  tops  of  other  eminences  whose  sides 
I  had  to  mount,  and,  these  ascended,  still  more  at  a  greater  distance,  which 
reminded  me  of  Pope's  line  in  his  Essay  on  Criticism : 

"  '  Hills  peep  o'er  hills,  and  Alps  on  AlpB  arise.' 

u  The  sun  had  shone  very  bright  ever  since  he  had  risen,  and  dried  up 
what  little  moisture  the  rain  had  kindly  distributed  last  night.  It  was 
now  between  eleven  and  twelve  o'clock,  and  time  for  me  to  rest  both 
myself  and  my  horses ;  but  as  I  could  observe  no  water  anywhere,  I  was 
obliged  to  proceed.  I  continued  on  for  some  little  distance,  and  at  last 
observed  a  hollow  in  the  ground,  where  some  rain  water  had  lodged  on  the 
day  preceding.  Here  I  alighted,  and,  kindling  a  fire,  made  some  coffee, 
and  fared  sumptuously  on  some  bread  and  butter  and  mutton  which  I  had 
brought  with  me  from  Mr.  Blackamoor's.  Here,  being  all  alone,  I  saun 
tered  about  the  woods  to  observe  the  fine  romantic  views  which  my  pecu 
liarly  elevated  situation  afforded  me.  I  then  returned  to  my  encamp 
ment,  and  reclined  under  the  shade  of  some  lofty  trees  for  an  hour  or  two, 
and,  after  giving  my  horses  time  to  graze  about  the  woods,  pursued  my 
journey. 

"  I  continued  on  my  way  this  afternoon  without  meeting  with  any 
thing  very  remarkable.  The  agreeable  diversity  of  hill  and  dale  with 
which  this  State  is  favored,  together  with  the  delightful  views  of  a  fine 
romantic  country,  served  to  dissipate  that  ennui  and  wearisomeness  which, 
perhaps,  I  might  otherwise  have  experienced.  There  had  been  an  army 
across  this  place  about  two  or  three  years  ago,  and  I  took  a  pleasure  in 
observing  their  track  through  the  woods,  and  in  tracing  out  their  different 
encampments  as  they  went  along.  In  some  places  I  could  hardly  discover 
any  remains  of  their  march  ;  in  others,  it  was  distinctly  visible.  I  deter 
mined  upon  halting  early  this  evening,  not  only  that  I  might  thereby 
rest  my  horses  from  the  fatigue  of  ascending  such  steep  eminences,  but 
also  that  I  might  be  enabled  to  kindle  a  fire  and  take  my  repast  before  the 
night  set  in.  Just  before  six  I  came  to  a  brook,  which  I  followed  some 
little  way  into  the  woods,  in  order  that  I  might  get  off  the  path  and  avoid 
discovery,  and  (having  singled  out  a  convenient  spot  surrounded  by  a ' 
thicket  on  evary  side)  I  unpacked  my  horses,  and  determined  to  tarry 
here  all  night.  Thus  you  behold  me  a  third  time  encamped  out  in  the 
VOL.  I. 13 


190  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1797. 

woods  by  myself.  I  was  by  this  time  got  pretty  well  used  to  it,  so  that  I 
lay  down  with  as  little  concern  as  if  I  had  been  surrounded  by  a  numerous 
party.  My  sleep  was  undisturbed  till  the  morning — 

"Monday,  August  14th, — When  I  awoke,  and  pursued  my  journey 
alone.  As  I  was  proceeding  on  my  way  on  foot  up  one  of  the  steep  emi 
nences  among  these  mountains,  whom  should  I  discover  (on  turning  round) 
at  some  distance  behind  me,  but  Mr.  Davidson,  whom  I  had  left  a  few 
days  ago  in  the  settlements.  I  immediately  stopped  my  horses  and  halted 
till  he  came  up.  It  was  a  joyful  meeting  to  us  both,  as  we  were  each  trav 
eling  alone.  He  informed  me  that  his  friends  having  declined  accompany 
ing  him,  he  had  made  the  best  of  his  way  to  overtake  me ;  that  lie  had 
passed  two  nights  alone  in  the  desert,  and  had  tracked  me  to  the  very 
spot  in  which  we  were  then  speaking.  We  compared  notes  respecting  our 
situation  on  the  stormy  night  of  the  Saturday,  and  found  that  we  could 
not  have  been  a  great  way  from  each  other.  Under  such  circumstances 
it  would  have  been  fortunate  to  have  found  a  companion. 

"  Our  conversation  now  beguiled  the  path  amazingly,  and  we  reached 
the  summit  of  the  mountain  without  having  experienced  any  toil  or  fatigue. 
Our  course  lay  now  over  a  smooth  plain,  and  the  agreeableness  of  the  place 
would  have  induced  us  to  halt,  had  we  found  any  water  near  j  but  there 
being  a  scarcity  of  that  article,  we  were  obliged  to  pursue  our  journey  still 
further.  At  length,  finding  that  our  search  was  fruitless,  we  sat  us  down 
and  finished  our  repast  without  any  liquid  whatever  to  appease  the  press 
ing  calls  of  thirst,  which  the  heat  of  the  climate  and  the  labor  of  the  journey 
induced.  As  I  was  wandering  about,  according  to  my  custom,  to  observe 
the  beauties  of  the  country,  I  saw  in  some  few  places  the  tracks  of  deer 
or  other  animals  on  the  ground,  which  were  filled  with  water,  the  last  re 
mains  of  the  storm  on  the  twelfth.  These  tracks  hardly  contained  a  wine 
glass  full  apiece,  and  were  so  shallow  that  we  could  not  take  up  the  water 
with  a  spoon  which  we  had  with  us  without  mixing  it  with  the  dirt  at  the 
bottom ;  we  therefore  cut  a  flat  stick,  and  hollowing  it  out  somewhat  in 
the  middle,  took  it  up  drop  ~by  drop,  and  placed  it  in  a  tin  cup  till  we  had 
nearly  filled  it,  and  having  collected  sufficient  for  a  draught,  drank  it  up, 
and  thus  appeased  the  pressing  calls  of  nature.  We  then  pursued  our 
journey,  and  were  continually  delighted  with  the  romantic  scenery  of  the 
country,  a  fine  view  of  which  we  gained  when  we  reached  the  summit  of 
the  various  eminences  with  which  this  part  of  the  country  abounds. 
About  four  o'clock  we  arrived  at  Oba's  river ;  it  was  a  pretty  wide  stream, 
but  very  shallow,  and  full  of  large  stones,  or  rather  rocks,  which,  together 
with  its  craggy  sides,  contrasted  with  the  surrounding  woods,  formed  a 
picturesque  and  pleasant  appearance.  I  should  have  been  surprised  to  find 
so  large  a  stream  at  the  top  of  the  mountains ;  but  as  I  observed  the  same 
thing  on  the  Albghany  mountains,  and  justly  concluded  that  this  was  the 


1797.]  THE      TENNESSEE      WILDERNESS.  191 

source  of  all  the  large  navigable  streams  that  water  this  county,  my  sur 
prise  was  somewhat  abated.  *We  did  not  proceed  far  beyond  this  place 
ere  we  encamped  ;  and  we  had  scarcely  kindled  our  fire,  before  we  were 
joined  by  a  party  of  three  other  persons  who  were  traveling  the  same  way 
as  we  were,  and  who,  observing  our  fire,  had  made  toward  the  place 
where  we  encamped,  with  an  intent  of  passing  the  night  with  us.  We 
were  happy  to  see  them,  as  it  not  only  strengthened  our  party,  but  also 
enlivened  a  few  hours  which  otherwise  we  might  have  passed  very  dull  for 
want  of  company.  We  set  our  new  visitors  to  collect  wood  for  the  fire ; 
and  there  being  an  appearance  of  rain,  we  formed  a  curious  kind  of  Indian 
tent  out  of  the  bark  of  some  trees  which  we  saw  scattered  about.  This 
appeared  to  be  an  old  encamping  place,  as  there  were  the  remains  of  sev 
eral  fires  and  camps  on  every  side  of  the  little  stream  of  water  on  whose 
banks  we  halted.  Our  fears  were,  however,  groundless;  for  the  night 
passed  away  very  pleasantly,  and  the  next  morning — 

"  Tuesday,  August  15th, — We  continued  our  journey.  We  had  not  met 
a  single  person  in  the  wilderness  all  this  time,  since  I  took  leave  of  the 
few  travelers  I  met  with  on  the  banks  of  the  Cumberland  river.  However, 
this  morning  we  met  with  a  party  of  emigrants  who  were  traveling  to  the 
western  division  of  this  State,  and  who  had  got  a  wagon  along  with 
them,  together  with  a  few  cows  and  other  cattle.  They  appeared  heartily 
fatigued  with  the  labors  of  the  journey,  and  inquired  of  us  how  far  it  was 
to  the  termination  of  the  wilderness.  We  gave  them  but  a  bad  account 
of  the  roughness  of  the  roads,  of  which  they  said  they  had  encountered 
enough  already.  In  return  we  asked  them  concerning  the  state  of  the 
paths  which  we  w^ere  pursuing,  of  which  they  also  could  give  no  flattering 
account ;  in  particular,  they  told  us  that  we  were  approaching  toward  a 
part  where  we  should  find  great  scarcity  of  grass  in  the  woods;  -and  con 
sequently  that  we  ought  to  take  advantage  of  those  spots  where  we  should 
observe  any.  Having  delayed  some  little  time  in  conversation,  we  pro 
ceeded  on,  and  soon  after  halted  to  take  our  morning's  repast.  We  did  not 
continue  here  so  long  as  we  had  used  to  do,  as  we  wished  to  reach  the 
Crab  Orchard  in  the  evening.  We  accordingly  hurried  on ;  and  having 
passed  two  small  rivers,  or  rather  creeks,  we  arrived  at  that  spot  about  five 
o'clock. 

"  Here  we  halted  some  time  in  order  to  admire  the  beauties  of  the 
place.  It  is  a  fine  large  plain,  or  natural  meadow,  containing  many  hun 
dred  acres,  and  covered  throughout  its  whole  extent  -with  a  tall,  rich  grass, 
surrounded  on  every  side  by  the  neighboring  mountains,  and  watered  with 
several  fine  springs,  which  flow  from  one  end  to  the  other.  The  scenery 
of  the  craggy  mountains,  covered  with  trees  to  their  very  top,  contrasted 
with  the  smooth  level  of  the  plain,  afforded  us  a  view  highly  picturesque, 
no^el,  and  enchanting  •  and  one  which  we  could  not  but  dwell  on  with 


192  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1797. 

pleasure.  Near  one  end  of  it,  and  not  far  from  the  road,  is  a  very  great 
natural  curiosity.  It  is  a  subterraneous  cavity  in  a  rock  under  the  moun 
tains,  down  which  you  descend,  by  some  steps  cut  in  the  stone,  into  a  large 
spacious  room,  through  which  runs  a  clear,  limpid  stream  of  spring  water, 
which  rises  from  the  rock  at  one  end  and  flows  out  at  the  other,  through  a 
passage  under  ground,  and  disgorges  itself  in  the  open  air,  not  far  from  the 
entrance  to  the  cave.  I  thought  within  myself,  that  this  would  form  an 
admirable  situation  for  a  settlement,  and  this  subterraneous  cavity  would 
afford  an  excellent  convenience  for  a  spring  house*  being  always  cool  even 
in  the  hottest  seasons. 

"  With  regret  we  left  this  delightful  spot,  and  proceeded  on  about  one 
mile  and  a  half  further,  to  the  foot  of  Spenser's  Hill,  where  there  was  an 
excellent  spring  of  water,  and  plenty  of  grass  and  pea-vine  for  our  horses. 
Just  before  we  reached  this  spot  we  met  a  party  of  horsemen,  who  were 
bound  also  to  the  western  division  of  this  State.  The  number  of  persons 
whom  we  now  met  surprised  me  very  much,  never  having  before  noticed 
anything  of  the  kind  in  a  desert  wilderness ;  but  it  must  be  observed  that, 
since  the  Indians  have  been  at  peace,  traveling  has  been  more  secure,  and 
small  parties  have  not  feared  to  trust  themselves  along  the  wilderness ;  and 
as  emigration  is  increasing  very  fast,  there  is  great  probability  that  this 
road  will,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  be  as  secure  as  any  in  the  United 
States. 

"  We  endeavored  to  persuade  this  party  to  join  us  this  evening ;  but  as 
they  were  in  a  hurry  to  proceed  they  soon  left  us,  and  we  presently  after 
reached  the  place  of  our  destination. 

"  As  we  had  experienced  great  want  of  water  in  our  jonrney  across 
these  mountains,  anything  which  partook  of  the  nature  of  a  stream  would 
have  been  acceptable  to  us :  how  much  more  then  must  it  be  to  meet  with 
one  of  the  finest  springs  the  earth  ever  produced  1  We  drank  of  it  as  if 
it  were  nectar,  and  had  it  possessed  any  spirit,  we  should  have  lain  down 
overcome  with  its  fumes.  We  kindled  a  fire  for  the  night,  and  then  led 
our  horses  away  to  a  neighboring  spot  abounding  with  rich  grass  and  pea- 
vine.  We  then  returned  to  our  encampment,  and  passed  away  the  remain 
ing  part  of  the  day  in  observing  the  beauties  of  the  place.  We  were  now 
at  the  termination  of  the  smooth  plain  I  have  been  mentioning,  and  (after 
having  made  some  circuitous  turnings)  were  arrived  at  the  foot  of  one  of 
the  highest  ridges  of  these  mountains,  the  ascent  of  which  is  remarkably 
steep  and  difficult.  As  I  was  wandering  about,  admiring  the  beauties  of 
the  place,  and  embosomed  in  the  woods  and  mountains,  I  could  not  but 
reflect  what  an  insignificant  creature  I  appeared  among  these  magnificent 

*  A  spring  house  is  a  very  common  appendage  to  an  American  farmer's  es 
tablishment,  even  in  these  rough  countries.  It  is  a  substitute  for  an  ice-house. 


1797.]  THE     TENNESSEE     WILDERNESS.  193 

works  of  the  divine  Creator ;  and  it  threw  me  into  a  train  of  thought 
somewhat  similar  to  what  I  should  conceive  Addison  was  in,  when  he 
penned  certain  numbers  of  the  Spectator.  We  strolled  about  here  till  it 
was  quite  dark,  and  returning  to  the  rest  of  our  company  (by  the  light  of 
the  fire  they  had  kindled),  spread  our  blankets  and  lay  us  down  to  rest ; 
and  the  next  morning, 

"  Wednesday,  August  ~L6th, — Awoke  pretty  early,  in  order  to  surmount, 
before  the  heat  of  the  day,  the  difficult  path  which  lay  before  us.  This 
was  no  less  than  one  of  the  steepest  and  longest  mountains  I  remember  to 
have  passed  over.  It  was  with  difficulty  our  pack-horses  could  ascend  it, 
and  we  were  obliged  to  halt  several  times,  or  they  would  not  have  been 
able  to  proceed.  Having  reached  the  summit,  we  proceeded  on  pretty 
well  afterwards,  as  the  descent  was  by  no  means  so  rapid;  and  when  we 
reached  the  foot  of  the  mountain  on  the  other  side,  we  halted  at  the  first 
stream  of  water  to  refresh  ourselves  and  our  horses.  Coming  down  from 
these  mountains,  we  had  a  most  delightful  view  of  the  surrounding  country. 
The  spurs  or  ridges  of  mountains  which  projected  from  the  side  of  this  vast 
base,  formed  an  agreeable  variety  of  hill  and  dale  immediately  under  us ; 
and  the  distant  plain,  or  sea  of  woods  beyond,  formed  a  delightful  and 
enchanting  contrast. 

"  We  did  not  stop  long  at  our  breakfast,  but  (wishing  to  proceed  on 
our  journey)  saddled  our  horses,  and  made  the  best  of  our  way  to  Clinch 
river,  where  we  arrived  about  three  o'clock.  Here  we  took  leave  of  the 
wilderness,  and  observed  once  more  the  marks  of  civilized  life.  On  the 
banks  of  the  Clinch  river  we  remarked  a  small  Indian  encampment,  where 
a  few  Indian  women  were  dressing  some  victuals:  they  told  us  their  hus 
bands  were  gone  out  to  hunt.  Whilst  our  horses  were  ferrying  across  in 
the  boat  (which  belongs  to  a  man  who  has  a  plantation  on  the  opposite 
shore)  we  entered  into  conversation  with  them,  and  exchanged  some  salt 
and  gunpowder  for  some  mockasons  which  they  had  got. 

"  Clinch  river,  where  we  crossed  it,  was  two  hundred  and  eighty  yards 
wide,  and  was  within  sight  of  its  junction  with  the  Tennessee,  of  which  it 
is  one  of  the  principal  branches.  It  is  thirty  miles  below  the  junction  of 
the  Holstein  and  Tennessee  rivers.  We  paid  for  our  ferriage  one  eighth  of 
a  dollar  for  each  horse.  It  will  be  observed,  by  an  inspection  of  the  map, 
that  from  the  time  we  took  the  Cumberland  mountains  to  this  place  we 
have  been  traveling  within  the  Indian  country.  The  Indians  keep  this 
tract  of  land  in  full  sovereignty,  and  have  not  yet  parted  with  their  title  to 
it  to  the  United  States.  But  soon  after  we  leave  the  banks  of  the  Clinch 
river,  we  get  once  more  within  the  proper  limits  of  the  State  of  Tennessee. 
After  refreshing  ourselves  at  the  ferry  we  continued  our  journey,  intending 
to  reach  this  evening  an  encampment  of  men,  women  and  children,  which 
was  formed  between  this  place  and  Knoxville.  These  people  were  wait- 


194  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1797. 

ing  to  set  out  to  settle  some  lands  on  the  Tennessee  river,  but  (as  there 
lately  had  been  a  dispute  with  the  Indians  with  respect  to  the  running  the 
line  which  divided  their  territory  from  the  United  States)  they  thought  it 
best  to  wait  the  issue  of  the  negotiation  which  was  pending.  The  limits  of 
the  Indian  territory  had  been  fixed  by  the  treaty  of  Holstein ;  but  it  being 
some  years  after  ere  the  line  was  actually  run,  they  found  (when  they  came 
to  survey  that  part  of  the  country)  that  a  number  of  inhabitants  had 
encroached  and  settled  on  the  Indian  territory.  This  was  not  at  all  to  be 
wondered  at,  as  it  is  almost  impossible  to  know  exactly  where  a  line 
(drawn  only  upon  paper)  will  actually  strike  when  it  comes  to  be 
measured.  As  the  United  States  (agreeably  to  the  policy  which  they 
have  universally  adopted)  were  determined  that  the  Indians  should  have 
no  just  cause  of  complaint,  they  ordered  all  the  families  which  had  so 
encroached  to  remove  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States,  and  the 
President  actually  sent  a  detachment  of  the  army  into  the  country  to 
enforce  his  commands.  This  was  the  bone  of  contention  which  was  the 
subject  of  conversation  in  every  place  I  went  into.  The  inhabitants  firmly 
opposed  being  removed  from  their  settlements,  and  they  were  supported 
in  their  opposition  by  the  encouragement  of  those  who  were  within  the 
limits  of  the  United  States,  as  they  all  hate  the  Indians,  and  think  a  little 
deviation  from  justice  is  a  thing  to  be  overlooked  where  their  two  interests 
clash  with  each  other.  So  far  does  prejudice  carry  us!  And  I  believe  the 
inhabitants  were  prepared  to  defend  themselves  against  the  soldiery  with 
the  point  of  the  sword.  Happily,  things  did  not  come  to  these  extremi 
ties,  for  it  was  discovered  that  the  line  which  had  been  drawn  by  the  sur 
veyors  was  not  agreeable  to  the  treaty ;  that,  if  it  had  been  drawn  right,  it 
would  not  have  cut  off  any  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  State  within  the  Indian 
limits.  Accordingly,  a  representation  of  this  case  was  made  to  the  Gen 
eral  Assembly  at  Knoxville,  who  forwarded  a  remonstrance  to  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States;  and.  at  the  same  time,  formed  a  number  of 
resolutions  indicative  of  their  determination  not  to  suffer  the  inhabitants  to 
be  turned  out  of  their  possessions.  Such  was  the  state  of  the  country  when 
I  was  in  it.  We  reached  the  encampment  about  sunset,  and,  having  kin 
dled  a  fire  among  them  and  turned  our  horses  into  the  woods  to  search  for 
pasture,  went  round  to  visit  the  different  parties  we  saw  there.  They  were 
scattered  over  a  rising  ground,  near  which  were  some  fine  springs  of  water. 
They  seemed  to  lament  their  situation,  in  being  deprived  of  going  to  settle 
the  land  which  they  had  justly  and  fairly  bought,  and  were  so  worked  up 
by  the  appaient  hardness  of  their  case  that,  had  things  taken  a  contrary 
turn,  I  believe  they  would  have  forced  their  way  by  the  point  of  the 
bayonet.  We  strolled  about  among  them  till  it  was  quite  dark.  The  sight 
of  any  kind  of  society  quite  enlivened  us,  and  we  returned  to  our  grassy 
bed  in  health  and  spirits.  In  the  morning, 


1797.]  THE     TENNESSEE     WILDERNESS. 

"  Thursday,  August  17 'tli, — We  rose  again  to  pursue  our  journey.  It- 
was  some  time  before  we  could  find  our  horses,  as  they  had  strayed  further 
into  the  woods  than  we  had  ever  known  them  to  do  before.  By  the 
assistance  of  some  of  our  kind  companions,  we  soon  recovered  them,  and, 
taking  leave  of  this  little  society,  directed  our  steps  toward  Knoxville,  the 
capital  of  the  State.  Soon  after  we  started,  I  took  leave  of  my  compan 
ions,  as  they  were  going  another  road  from  the  one  I  was  pursuing.  I 
therefore  jogged  on  by  myself,  admiring,  in  silence,  the  different  agreeable 
objects  which  were  continually  presenting  themselves  to  my  eyes.  About 
one  o'clock  I  stopped  at  a  plantation  which  I  saw  on  the  road,  and,  having 
alighted  from  my  horse  and  given  him  some  corn,  walked  into  the  house 
to  get  something  for  myself;  for  at  all  these  places  you  may  take  this 
liberty  if  you  pay  them  well  for  it.  I  found  the  family  just  set  down  to 
some  soup  or  kind  of  broth,  which  was  made  by  boiling  Indian  corn  and 
bacon  together,  or  in  some  such  way.  It  was  to  me  very  good,  as  I  was 
extremely  hungry,  though  at  any  other  time  or  place  I  might  have  rejected 
it  with  disgust.  Having  tarried  here  about  an  hour,  I  pursued  my  journey, 
and,  within  about  a  mile  or  two  of  Knoxville,  passed  through  the  detach 
ment  of  the  army  which  had  been  sent  down  here  to  enforce  the  President's 
command.  The  band  was  just  playing  a  military  air,  and  a  number  of 
people  had  come  from  the  town  to  hear  and  to  see.  It  was  an  agreeable 
sight  to  me,  as  I  found  myself  emerged  at  once  from  the  bosom  of  the 
wilderness  to  all  the  charms  of  civilized  life.  I  stopped  a  little  here,  and 
recognized  some  of  the  officers  whom  I  had  seen  before  on  the  Ohio. 
Soon  after,  I  left  them,  and,  at  six,  reached  the  town  of  Knoxville,  which  is 
forty  miles  from  Clinch  river.  Ccetera  desunt."* 

Here  Mr.  Baily's  journal  abruptly  ends.  He  accom 
plished  the  journey  from  Nashville  in  fifteen  days.  His 
diary  gives  us  a  lively  idea  of  the  country  which  Andrew 
Jackson  went  to  Philadelphia  to  represent.  If,  however, 
he  had  gone  that  way  in  the  autumn  months,  when  emi 
grants  were  wont  to  journey  westward,  he  would  have  found 
the  road  less  lonely.  In  a  New  York  paper  of  November, 
1796,  I  find  a  paragraph  which  states  that  a  gentleman  had 
met,  in  four  days'  travel  from  Nashville  to  Knoxville,  one 
hundred  and  seventy-five  wagons,  and  ten  times  that  number 

*  Journal  of  a  Tour  in  the  Unsettled  Parts  of  the  United  States  of  North 
America  in  1796  and  1797.  By  the  late  Francis  Baily,  F.  R.  S.,  President  of 
the  Royal  Astronomical  Society.  London,  1851. 


196  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1797. 

of  "  bat  horses/'  on  their  way  to  the  Cumberland  settlements. 
Another  paragraph,  of  about  the  same  date,  mentions,  as  a 
remarkable  item  of  intelligence,  that  the  road  through  the 
Cumberland  Gap  was  then  safe  for  wagons  containing  a  ton 
of  merchandise  ! 


CHAPTER     XVII. 

FILTHY     DEMOCRATS. 

JACKSON  reached  Philadelphia  about  the  first  of  Decem 
ber — The  Honorable  Andrew  Jackson  of  Tennessee.  Albert 
Gallatin,  a  leading  member  of  Congress  at  that  time,  remem 
bered  him,  in  after  years,  as  "  a  tall,  lank,  uncouth-looking 
personage,  with  long  locks  of  hair  hanging  over  his  face,  and 
a  queue  down  his  back  tied  in  an  eel  skin  ;  his  dress  singular, 
his  manners  and  deportment  those  of  a  rough  backwoods 
man  ;"*  a  description  which  no  friend  of  Jackson's  later 
years  will  admit  to  be  correct.  Nevertheless,  so  he  may  have 
appeared  to  the  sedate  and  European  Gallatin,  looking  back 
through  a  long  vista  of  years  at  a  man  whose  character  and 
opinions  he  deplored.  Philadelphia,  then  a  city  of  sixty-five 
thousand  inhabitants,  was  the  center  of  all  that  the  young 
republic  could  boast  of  the  intelligent  and  the  refined. 

The  period  during  which  Jackson  served  in  Congress  has 
recently  received  such  frequent  illustration  that  it  must  be 
fresh  in  the  recollection  of  the  reading  public.  Mr.  living's 
Fifth  Volume,  which  relates  the  rise  of  the  democratic  party 
(with  more  truth  than  sympathy)  is  the  fifth  volume  of  a 
household  work.  The  reader,  therefore  need  only  be  briefly 
reminded  of  two  or  three  features  of  the  time,  which  must 
have  made  a  particular  impression  upon  the  young  represent 
ative  from  Tennessee. 

*  Hildrefh's  History  of  the  United  States. 


1796.]  FILTHY      DEMOCRATS.  197 

We  have  heard,  in  our  own  day,  of  the  Great  Unwashed. 
From  an  anecdote  related  of  Mrs.  Washington,  it  may  be  in 
ferred  that  Democrats  have  held  a  reputation  of  that  kind 
from  a  very  early  period  of  their  existence  as  a  Power  in  the 
world.  One  day  in  the  second  term  of  her  husband's  presi 
dency,  Mrs  Washington's  watchful  ear  observed  that  the 
harpsicord  of  her  niece,  Nelly  Custis,  ceased  playing.  It  was 
the  young  lady's  time  for  practice,  and  her  aunt  was  too 
strict  a  disciplinarian  to  allow  her  to  waste  those  hours. 
The  music  was  not  resumed  for  some  time,  and  in  the  midst 
of  the  untimely  pause,  the  mistress  of  the  presidential  man 
sion  heard  some  one  leave  the  room  in  which  the  young 
maiden  was.  She  went  in  to  learn  his  name.  The  young 
lady  not  volunteering  the  information,  the  attention  of  Mrs. 
Washington  was  suddenly  attracted  to  a  disfiguring  mark  on 
the  wall,  which  had  been  painted  a  delicate  cream  color. 

"Ah,"  cried  she,  "it  was  no  Federalist.  None  but  a 
filthy  Democrat  would  mark  a  place  on  the  wall  with  his 
good-for-nothing  head  in  that  manner."* 

There  are  representative  anecdotes,  as  well  as  representa 
tive  men,  and  this  appears  to  be  one  of  them.  Whether  true 
or  false,  or  half  true,  is  not  of  the  slightest  consequence  : 
it  correctly  indicates  the  drawing-room  sentiment  of  the 
period,  and  has  a  special  interest  for  us,  inasmuch  as  An 
drew  Jackson  was  a  "filthy  Democrat."  A  filthy  Demo 
crat  of  that  day  was  dhe  who  sympathized  with,  and  be 
lieved  in,  the  French  Eevolution  ;  who  thought  the  United 
States  doubly  bound — bound  by  gratitude  and  by  community 
of  principles — to  aid  the  French  republic  in  her  struggle 
with  the  "  leagued  despotisms  ;"  who  thought  it  due  to  the 
human  race  that  the  Mistress  of  the  Seas  should  be  humbled, 
and  that  the  United  States  ought  to  assist  in  that  undertak 
ing  ;  who  opposed  the  conciliatory  measures  of  Washington's 
administration,  and  held  in  abhorrence  Hamilton's  finan 
cial  system,  the  funding  of  the  Public  Debt,  the  NATIONAL 

*  Griswold's  Republican  Court. 


198  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1796. 

BANK,  and  its  issues  of  PAPER  MONEY  ;  who  hated  kings, 
nobles,  and  all  privileged"  orders,  with  a  peculiar  warmth  of 
animosity  ;  and  who  believed  in  Republicanism,  pure  and 
simple,  as  established  by  the  Constitution,  and  as  expounded 
by  Jefferson. 

But  why  continue  the  enumeration,  when  before  me  lies 
the  list  of  toasts  given  at  the  Evacuation  Day  banquet  of  the 
TAMMANY  SOCIETY  of  the  city  of  New  York,  on  the  twenty- 
fifth  of  November,  1796,  just  as  Andrew  Jackson  was  reaching 
Philadelphia  ?  These  will  give  the  reader  an  idea  of  what 
the  filthy  Democrats  were  then  thinking  about.  Every  toast 
was  a  hit  at  the  Federal  party,  either  in  its  form  or  its  sub 
stance  : — 

"  1.  The  people  of  the  United  States  and  their  President, 

"  2.  The  virtuous  Congress  of  1776,  who  decreed  the  freedom  of  three 
millions  of  their  fellow-citizens,  thousands  of  whom  afterwards  sealed  it 
with  their  blood.  (Three  cheers.) 

"3.  The  republic  of  France.  May  the  wisdom  and  energy  of  her 
counsels  confound  and  dismay,  while  her  armies  and  navy  overwhelm  and 
annihilate  her  enemies. 

"  4.  Spain  and  the  other  powers  who  have  acknowledged  the  republics 
of  America,  France  and  Holland.  May  they  be  an  example  to  the  des 
pots  of  the  world,  who  are  yet  blind  to  the  happiness  of  the  human  race. 

"  5.  A  lasting  peace,  founded  on  the  basis  of  equal  rights,  to  the  bel 
ligerent  powers  of  Europe ;  may  they  never  more  unsheath  the  sword  in 
defense  of  despotism. 

"6.  Citizens  Jourdan,  Buonaparte,  Moreaa,  Bournonville,  and  the  other 
brave  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  French  armies  ;  success  to  their  arms,  and 
may  their  exertions  secure  the  constitution  and  liberties  of  the  French  re 
public.  (Six  cheers.) 

"  7.  Success  and  prosperity  to  all  who  contend  for  the  equal  rights  of 
man.  (Nine  cheers.) 

"  8.  May  the  late  infamous  British  treaty  be  expunged  from  the  laws 

of  our  land,  and  the  blank  filled  up  with Here  was  written  the  first  and 

last  act  of  American  ingratitude  and  pusillanimity.  (Twelve  cheers.) 

"  9.  Eternal  love  and  gratitude  to  the  French  nation ;  may  the  men 
who  would  connect  us  with  Great  Britain  justly  incur  the  resentment  of 
every  genuine  American.  (Twelve  cheers.) 

"  10.  The  voluntary  exiles  of  our  city  and  country,  who  sacrificed  their 
all,  to  establish  ou-  freedom  and  independence.  (Six  cheers.) 


1796.]  FILTHY     DEMOCRATS.  199 

'•  11.  The  memory  of  those  American  citizens  who  fell  martyrs  to  the 
cause  of  our  country ;  may  we  never  forget  to  celebrate  their  victorious 
deeds. 

"12.  May  the  '  exercise  of  heels1  so  nobly  displayed  on  the  25th  No 
vember,  1783,  be  for  ever  improved  to  the  advantage  of  republicans. 

"  13.  The  American  fair.  May  their  smiles  be  propitious  to  the  cause 
of  Freedom,  and  their  approbation  be  only  bestowed  on  the  friends  of  their 
country. 

"14.  A  speedy  evacuation  of  this  city  by  all  the  tories,  royalists  and 
British  emissaries ;  may  their  retreat  be  to  the  tune  of  'Yankee  Doodle.' 
(Fifteen  cheers.) 

"  15.  May  the  tricolor  flag  soon  wave  in  triumph  on  the  Tower  of  Lon 
don,  and  may  the  oppressed  citizens  of  Britain  regain  their  lost  rights  and 
enjoy  perpetual  freedom. 

a  16.  The  day  we  celebrate ;  may  we  ever  remember  the  greasy  flag 
staff  and  the  triumph  of  Liberty."* 

Jackson  reached  Philadelphia  at  a  peculiarly  interesting 
moment.  The  country  had  just  passed  through  the  agonies 
of  the  first  contested  presidential  election,  and  every  one  was 
waiting  with  baited  breath  to  learn  the  result.  As  Jackson 
was  always  a  great  reader  of  newspapers,  we  may  be  sure  that 
he  read  in  republican  Greenleaf,  a  few  mornings  after  his 
arrival,  the  following  article,  explanatory  of  the  hour,  as  well 
as  expressive  of  his  own  ardent  feelings  : — 

"  The  day  before  yesterday,  the  dye  was  cast,  and  the  ballots  for  Presi 
dent  and  Vice  President  irrevocably  sealed  up  in  the  respective  districts  of 
the  United  States.  Every  citizen  will  acknowledge  the  great  importance 
of  this  election  ;  and  that  the  future  prospects  of  this  great  people  will  be 
materially  affected  by  the  issue,  none  will  deny. 

"  Jefferson  and  Adams  are  fairly  on  the  ground,  but  which,  or  whether 
either  of  them,  will  come  out  first  at  the  stake,  is  problematical  in  the 
opinion  of  many.  Pinckney  and  Burr  are  candidates  for  Vice  President, 
and  should  there  not  be  a  uniformity  in  voting  for  these  gentlemen,  the 
chair,  mayhap,  will  fall  to  the  lot  of  one  of  them.  We  do  not,  however, 
admit  this  probability  to  outweigh  the  first,  and  look  forward  with  steady 
eye  in  expectation  that  Jefferson  or  Adams  will  be  the  man.  If  neither 

*  Greenleaf's  New  York  Journal  and  Patriotic  Register,  of  November 
29th,  1796. 


200  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1796 

should  be  elected,  it  is  probable  neither  of  them  would  accept  the  second 
seat,  and  electioneering  will  not  yet  be  done  with. 

"  Wherein  would  the  true  interests  of  the  United  States  be  differently 
pursued  by  Jefferson  and  Adams  ? 

"  Jefferson  believing  it  in  the  power  of  man  to  render  their  state  happier, 
would  naturally  persevere  in  the  support  of  those  pure  republican  principles 
with  which  we  began  our  glorious  career. 

"  Adams  believing  man  incorrigible,  but  with  iron  bands,  would  as  nat 
urally  lead  on  to  kings,  lords  and  commons,  and  soon  bring  the  people  into 
such  a  happy  bondage,  that,  like  the  lambs  that  were  led  to  the  slaughter, 
they  would  smile  on  the  hand  which  raised  them  to  such  eminence,  and 
inure  their  souls  to  pure  servility." 

All  of  which  was  gospel  to  the  Honorable  Mr.  Jackson 
and  his  fellow-Republicans.  This  first  contested  presidential 
election  exhibited  the  same  revolting  phenomena  as  those  with 
which  the  present  generation  is  familiar.  It  was  a  strife  of 
loud-contending  Lies.  One  party  said:  "Fellow-citizens, 
Monarchy  or  Republicanism  is  the  question  at  issue,  Those 
who  desire  monarchy  and  a  war  with  France,  our  sister  re 
public  and  glorious  ally,  to  whom  we  owe  our  liberty,  will 
vote  for  Mr.  John  Adams,  who  is  knoivn  to  be  a  monarchist 
and  an  enemy  to  France."  To  which  the  other  party  replied : 
"All  who  wish  to  see  the  horrors  of  the  French  Revolution 
reenacted  in  America,  the  guillotine  set  up  in  our  streets 
and  a  Robespierre  in  the  chair  of  state,  will  vote  for  Thomas 
Jefferson,  the  Infidel,  the  leveler,  the  agrarian,  the  calumnia 
tor  of  Washington,  the  crack-brained  enthusiast."  Nor  were 
the  less  conspicuous  characters  spared.  In  the  Republican 
papers  I  see  Hamilton  accused  of  fomenting  the  Whisky  In 
surrection,  in  order  that  he  might  have  an  opportunity  of 
showing  his  prowess  in  suppressing  it.  It  was  also  insinuated 
that  he  was  in  the  habit  of  laughing  in  his  sleeve  at  the  Presi 
dent,  while  the  language  of  adulation  was  ever  on  his  lips 
when  he  approached  him.  Poor  Burr,  upon  whom  such  a  heavy 
odium  has  since  fallen,  appears  to  have  escaped  with  less  than 
his  fair  share  of  vituperation.  "  British  Guineas"  was  a  fre 
quent  rallying  cry  of  the  Republicans,  as  "  British  Gold" 
was  in  subsequent  elections.  There  was  little  mincing  of 


1796.]  FILTHY     DEMOCRATS.  201 

words  either.  When  the  Gazette  of  the  United  States  pre 
dicted  that  the  licentiousness  of  the  Kepublicans  would  end 
in  the  guillotine,  the  Aurora  wanted  to  know  whether  the  man 
who  said  so  was  "  more  a  fool  or  a  beast  ?"  The  jokes  of  the 
campaign.,  however,  were  exceedingly  mild  compared  with 
those  of  more  modern  days.  "  Do  you  know  the  reason/' 
asked  one  gentleman  of  another,  "  why  vessels  are  making  such 
short  voyages,  this  summer  to  England  ?"  Of  course,  the 
gentleman  addressed  did  not  know.  "  The  reason  is,"  re 
sumed  the  other,  "  that  since  the  ratification  of  Jay's  treaty, 
we  have  been  drawing  nearer  England."  Prodigious  !  This 
is  given  in  a  New  York  paper,  in  a  paragraph  by  itself, 
headed  "ANECDOTE." 

Tennessee  had  taken  a  particular  interest  in  this  election, 
for  two  reasons  :  it  was  the  first  in  which  she  had  ever  taken 
part ;  and,  secondly,  she  saw  in  it  the  means  of  punishing 
the  party  that  had  opposed  and  delayed  her  admission  into 
the  Union.  I  have  a  letter,0  written  by  William  Blount, 
Senator  elect  from  Tennessee,  dated  Philadelphia,  September 
26th,  1796,  addressed  to  Governor  Sevier,  which,  I  think,  is 
worth  inserting  here,  as  showing  the  state  of  feeling  among 
leading  Tennesseeans  during  that  campaign  : — 

"  I  request  you,"  wrote  Mr.  Blount,  "  to  send  my  commission  on  by 
my  colleague,  Mr.  Cocke.  Permit  me  to  say  that  it  is  my  opinion  that  it 
will  be  the  true  interest  of  Tennessee  in  particular,  and  of  the  Union  in 
general,  to  promote  the  interest  of  Jefferson  and  Burr  for  President  and 
Vice  President  at  the  ensuing  election,  and  it  is  my  opinion,  founded  upon 
the  best  information  that  the  nature  of  the  case  admits  of,  that  they  will  be 
elected.  I  hope  they  will  meet  your  approbation  and  receive  your  sup 
port. 

"  That  Jefferson  is  a  friend  of  our  country  I  suppose  nobody  in  Ten 
nessee  doubts,  and  I  pronounce  positively  that  Mr.  Burr,  from  a  combina 
tion  of  circumstances,  may  be  ranked  among  its  very  warmest  friends. 
None  of  the  southern  States,  except  South  Carolina,  will  vote  for  Mr. 
Pinckney  for  Vice  President,  but  generally  for  Burr,  and  it  is  generally 
believed  that  such  of  the  northern  States  as  talk  of  Mr.  Pinckney  mean 

*  From  Autograph  Collection  of  Gordon  L.  Ford,  Esq.,  of  New  York. 


202  LIFE      OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1796. 

only  thereby  to  promote  Mr.  Adams'  election,  and  in  the  end  not  vote  Mr. 
Pinckney.  Perhaps  this  business  had  best  not  be  spoke  of  aloud,  at  least 
I  would  not  like  to  have  it  understood  that  there  was  any  premeditated 
plan  in  the  business.  Mr.  Fiske,  who  will  have  the  honor  to  deliver  you 
this  letter,  I  believe,  is  with  us  in  his  wishes  as  to  President  and  Vice 
President,  but  I  would  advise  you  not  to  speak  freely  with  him  on  this 
subject.  From  me  he  knows  nothing  of  it,  and  there  are  but  few  who  do. 
Truth  is,  that  I  have  taken  a  great  agency  in  this  election,  and  have  been 
induced  so  to  do  by  the  part  the  adverse  party  took  against  the  admission 
of  Tennessee.  I  believe  I  have  before  told  you  that  Benjamin  Hawkins 
was  appointed  agent  to  the  four  southern  nations  of  Indians ;  he  left  that 
place  yesterday,  and  goes  to  the  Tuckabatchees,  where  he  means  to  reside, 
by  way  of  General  Pickens'.  His  appointment  is  only  temporary,  and  he 
may  or  may  not  be  confirmed  by  the  succeeding  President.  Do  not  sup 
pose  I  have  had  any  agency  in  his  appointment,  for  I  have  not;  he 
did  not  need  it,  for  he  is  a  favorite  of  the  present  President.  Pray  pre 
serve  peace  at  all  events  this  year,  as  it  is  desirable  in  every  point  of  view. 
You  can't  conceive  what  a  puppy  of  a  Secretary  of  War  we  have ;  he  was 
by  the  author  of  creation  intended  for  a  diminutive  taylor.  This  is  not 
an  official  letter.  Yours,  sincerely, 

"  WM.  BLOUNT. 

"P.  S. — It  is  here  believed  that  Spain  has  declared  war  against  Britam. 
The  French  are  going  on  with  their  successes  as  their  most  sanguine 
friends  could  wish.  Britain  must  be  humbled,  and  that  she  should  be  so  is 
the  interest  of  all  nations.  For  the  current  news  of  this  place,  I  refer  you 
to  the  bearer,  Mr.  Fiske." 

One  other  circumstance  remains  to  be  noted.  Jackson 
came  to  Philadelphia  at  one  of  those  periods  of  commercial 
depression  to  which  the  country  has  always  been  liable.  The 
financial  reader  is  aware  that  the  suspension  of  specie  pay 
ments  by  the  Bank  of  England,  which  lasted  twenty- two 
years,  began  in  February,  1797,  about  two  months  after 
Jackson's  arrival  in  Philadelphia.  The  depression  in  Phila 
delphia  was  already  severe,  and  the  failures  were  numerous, 
though  the  great  crash  was  still  a  year  distant.  In  all  times 
of  public  disaster,  one  of  the  first  of  public  necessities  is  a 
scapegoat,  and  never  so  much  as  when  the  cause  of  the  gen 
eral  distress  is  something  so  simple,  and,  therefore,  so  puz 
zling,  as  paralysis  of  business.  When  the  government  has 


1796.]  IN     THE     HOUSE.  203 

anything  to  do  with  th<3  pecuniary  affairs  of  the  nation, — 
when  the  government  is  the  proprietor  or  manager  of  the 
controlling  BANK,  for  example,  then  the  government  is  inva 
riably  the  scapegoat.  It  was  so  when  Jackson,  for  the  first 
time,  came  in  contact  with  the  great  world.  He  saw  the 
general  prostration  of  credit ;  and  when  he  sought  to  know 
the  cause  of  this  dire  effect,  whether  he  sought  it  in  conversa 
tion  with  Republican  members,  or  in  the  flaming  and  confi 
dent  organs  of  his  party,  he  heard  and  read  but  this  :  HAM 
ILTON — PAPER  MONEY — OVER-ISSUES — NATIONAL  BANK  ! 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

IN     THE     HOUSE. 

AMONG  the  fifty-six  members  of  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  who  were  present  on  the  first  day  of  the  session, 
December  5th,  1796,  was  Andrew  Jackson,  the  sole  repre 
sentative  of  a  State  that  has  since  sent  twelve  members  to 
that  House.  The  arrivals  of  the  next  few  days  increased  the 
number  of  members  present  to  eighty-nine.  Few  of  their 
names  have  escaped  oblivion.  These  only  are  remembered  by 
any  considerable  number  of  the  present  generation  :  Fisher 
Ames,  of  Massachusetts  ;  Chauncey  Goodrich,  of  Connecti 
cut  ;  Albert  Grallatin,  of  Pennsylvania  ;  James  Madison,  of 
Virginia  ;  Edward  Livingston,  of  New  York.  And  Chauncey 
G-oodrich  is  known  more  as  Peter  Parley's  uncle  than  as  a 
member  of  Congress.  John  Adams,  the  Vice  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  President  elect,  was  in  the  chair  of 
the  Senate,  the  list  of  whose  members  presents  but  one  name 
that  retains  to  this  day  a  national  celebrity  :  Aaron  Burr. 

The  first  business  transacted  in  the  House  shows  the  sim 
plicity  of  the  times.  A  member  presented  a  petition  from 
Thomas  Lloyd,  who  offered  to  take  short-hand  reports  of  the 


204  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1796. 

proceedings  of  the  House  at  the  rate  of  three  cents  per  half 
sheet,  or  at  a  salary  of  a  thousand  dollars  per  session,  and  to 
furnish  each  member  with  five  copies  of  the  proceedings, 
printed  and  bound,  for  an  additional  sum  of  five  hundred  and 
forty  dollars.  This  modest  proposition  was  referred  to  a 
special  committee,  who  reported  favorably  upon  it  ;  but  the 
House,  after  an  animated  debate,  rejected  it.  "  The  debates 
are  printed  well  enough  in  the  newspapers,"  said  the  opposing 
members,  "  and  if  each  member  should  be  furnished  with  five 
copies  of  the  proposed  report  at  the  public  expense,  the  mails 
of  the  whole  country  will  be  burthened*  with  their  transpor 
tation  !"  One  gentleman  remarked  that  members  might  as 
well  be  furnished,  at  the  public  expense,  with  the  works  of 
Peter  Porcupine  (William  Cobbett)  or  the  Eights  of  Man. 
To  all  of  which  the  new  member  from  Tennessee  listened 
with  a  mind  unprophetic  of  the  Congressional  Globe. 

On  the  third  day  of  the  session,  a  quorum  of  the  Senate 
having  reached  Philadelphia,  and  both  Houses  being  assem 
bled  in  the  Representatives'  chamber,  Jackson  saw  General 
Washington,  an  august  and  venerable  form,  enter  the  cham 
ber  and  deliver  his  last  speech  to  Congress  ;  heard  him 
recommend  the  gradual  creation  of  a  navy  for  the  protection 
of  American  commerce  in  the  Mediterranean  against  the 
pirates  of  Algiers  ;  heard  him  modestly — almost  timidly — 
suggest  that  American  manufactures  ought  to  be  at  least  so 
far  encouraged  and  aided  by  government  as  to  render  the 
country  independent  of  foreign  nations  in  time  of  war  ;  heard 
him  recommend  the  establishment  of  boards  of  agriculture,  a 
national  university  and  a  military  academy  ;  heard  him 
mildly  expose  the  stupidity  of  paying  low  salaries  to  high 
officers,  to  the  exclusion  from  high  office  of  all  but  men  of 
fortune  ;  heard  him  denounce  the  spoliations  of  our  com 
merce  by  cruisers  sailing  under  the  flag  of  the  French 

c-  «  There  is  now  a  clerk  in  the  New  York  post  office  who  used  to  carry  the 
whole  of  the  southern  mail,  from  the  Battery  to  the  post  office,  on  his  back."— 
Evening  Post,  April,  1859." 


1796.]  IN     THE     HOUSE.  205 

republic;  heard  him  conclude  his  fifteen  minutes'  address 
with  these  words  : 

{:  The  situation  in  which  I  now  stand,  for  the  last  time, 
in  the  midst  of  the  representatives  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  naturally  recalls  the  period  when  the  present 
form  of  government  commenced  ;  and  I  can  not  omit  the  oc 
casion  to  congratulate  you  and  my  country  on  the  success  of 
the  experiment ;  nor  to  repeat  my  fervent  supplications  to 
the  supreme  Ruler  of  the  universe  and  sovereign  Arbiter  of 
nations,  that  his  providential  care  may  still  he  extended  to 
the  United  States  ;  that  the  virtue  and  happiness  of  the  peo 
ple  may  be  preserved  ;  and  that  the  government  which  they 
have  instituted  for  the  protection  of  their  liberties  may  be 
perpetual." 

When,  amidst  the  profoundest  silence,  the  President  had 
finished  his  speech,  he  presented  a  copy  of  it  to  the  President 
of  the  Senate,  and  another  to  the  Speaker  of  the  House.  He 
then  withdrew,  and  the  Senators  returned  to  their  own 
chamber. 

At  that  day,  it  was  customary  for  each  House  to  prepare, 
and  in  person  deliver,  a  formal  reply  to  the  President's  open 
ing  speech.  It  was  in  connection  with  the  reply  of  the  Rep 
resentatives  to  the  President  on  this  occasion,  that  the  new 
member  from  Tennessee  is  said  to  have  voted  to  censure  Gen 
eral  Washington  ;  a  charge  upon  which  all  the  changes  were 
rung  in  the  presidential  campaigns  of  1824,  1828,  and  1832. 
Let  us  see  how  much  truth  there  was  in  the  accusation.  I 
use  the  words  charge  and  accusation,  because  the  vote  re 
ferred  to  has  always  been  viewed  in  that  light  ;  as  though  it 
were  not  meritorious  in  a  representative  to  censure  a  popu 
lar  hero  if  he  honestly  deemed  his  conduct  censurable. 

A  committee  of  five,  Messrs.  Ames,  Baldwin,  Madison,  Sit- 
greaves  and  William  Smith,  were  appointed  to  draw  up  an 
address  to  the  President.  It  was  expected,  and  it  was  proper, 
that  an  address  which  was  to  be  the  farewell  of  the  House  to 
the  first  man  in  the  nation,  should  be  more  elaborate  and 
warm  than  an  y  previous  response  to  an  annual  speech.  Ac- 
VOL.  i. — 14 


206  LIFE      OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1796. 

cordingiy,  on  Monday,  December  llth,  when  members  came 
into  the  chamber,  they  found  lying  on  their  desks  the  follow 
ing  draft  of  the  address  prepared  by  the  committee  : — 

'ADDRESS    TO    THE    PRESIDENT." 

"  SIR, — The  House  of  Representatives  have  attended  to  your  communi 
cation  respecting  the  state  of  our  country,  with  all  the  sensibility  that  the 
contemplation  of  the  subject  and  a  sense  of  duty  can  inspire. 

"  We  are  gratified  by  the  information  that  measures  calculated  to  en 
sure  a  continuance  of  the  friendship  of  the  Indians,  and  to  maintain  the 
tranquillity  of  the  interior  frontier,  have  been  adopted;  and  we  indulge  the 
hope  that  these,  by  impressing  the  Indian  tribes  with  more  correct  con 
ceptions  of  the  justice,  as  well  as  power  of  the  United  States,  will  be 
attended  with  success. 

"  While  we  notice,  with  satisfaction,  the  steps  that  you  have  taken  in 
pursuance  of  the  late  treaties  with  several  foreign  nations,  the  liberation  of 
our  citizens  who  were  prisoners  at  Algiers,  is  a  subject  of  peculiar  felicita 
tion.  We  shall  cheerfully  cooperate  in  any  further  measure  that  shall  ap 
pear,  on  consideration,  to  be  requisite. 

"  We  have  ever  concurred  with  you  in  the  most  sincere  and  uniform 
disposition  to  preserve  our  neutral  relations  inviolate ;  and  it  is,  of  course, 
with  anxiety  and  deep  regret  we  hear  that  any  interruption  of  our  har 
mony  with  the  French  republic  has  occurred ;  for  we  feel  with  you  and 
with  our  constituents  the  cordial  and  unabated  wish  to  maintain  a  per 
fectly  friendly  understanding  with  that  nation.  Your  endeavors  to  fulfill 
that  wish,  can  not  fail,  therefore,  to  interest  our  attention.  And  while  we 
participate  in  the  full  reliance  you  have  expressed  on  the  patriotism,  self- 
respect,  and  fortitude  of  our  countrymen,  we  cherish  the  pleasing  hope 
that  a  spirit  of  justice  and  moderation  on  the  part  of  the  republic  will  en 
sure  the  success  of  your  perseverance. 

"  The  various  subjects  of  your  communication  will,  respectively,  meet 
with  the  attention  that  is  due  to  their  importance. 

"When  we  advert  to  the  internal  situation  of  the  United  States,  we 
deem  it  equally  natural  and  becoming  to  compare  the  tranquil  prosperity 
of  the  citizens  with  the  period  immediately  antecedent  to  the  operation  of 
the  government,  and  to  contrast  it  with  the  calamities  in  which  the  state 
of  war  still  involves  several  of  the  European  nations,  as  the  reflection  de 
duced  from  both  tend  to  justify,  as  well  as  excite,  a  warmer  admiration  of 
our  free  Constitution,  and  to  exalt  our  minds  to  a  more  fervent  and  grate 
ful  sense  of  piety  towards  Almighty  Grod  for  the  beneficence  of  His  provi 
dences  by  which  this  admin  stration  has  been  hitherto  so  remarkably  dis 
tinguished. 


1796.]  IN     THE     HOUSE.  207 

"  And  while  we  entertain  a  grateful  conviction  that  your  wise,  firm, 
patriotic  administration  has  been  signally  conducive  to  the  success  of  the 
present  form  of  government,  we  can  not  forbear  to  express  the  deep  sen 
sations  of  regret  with  which  we  contemplate  your  intended  retirement 
from  office. 

"  As  no  other  suitable  occasion  may  occur,  we  can  not  suffer  the 
present  to  pass  without  attempting  to  disclose  some  of  the  emotions  which 
it  can  not  fail  to  awaken. 

"  The  gratitude  and  admiration  of  your  countrymen  are  still  drawn  to 
the  recollection  of  those  resplendent  virtues  and  talents  which  were  so 
eminently  instrumental  to  the  achievement  of  the  Revolution,  and  of  which 
that  glorious  event  will  ever  be  the  memorial.  Your  obedience  to  the 
voice  of  duty  and  your  country,  when  you  quitted  reluctantly  a  second 
time  the  retreat  you  had  chosen,  and  first  accepted  the  presidency,  afforded 
a  new  proof  of  the  devotedness  of  your  zeal  in  its  service,  and  an  earnest 
of  the  patriotism  and  success  which  has  characterized  your  administration. 
As  the  grateful  confidence  of  the  citizens  in  the  virtue  of  their  chief  magis 
trate  has  essentially  contributed  to  that  success,  we  persuade  ourselves 
that  the  millions  whom  we  represent  participate  with  us  in  the  anxious 
solicitude  of  the  present  occasion, 

"  Yet  we  can  not  be  unmindful  that  your  moderation  and  magnanimity, 
twice  displayed  by  retiring  from  your  exalted  stations,  afford  examples  no 
less  rare  and  instructive  to  mankind  than  valuable  to  a  republic. 

"  Although  we  are  sensible  that  this  event,  of  itself,  completes  the 
luster  of  a  character  already  conspicuously  unrivaled  by  the  coincidence  of 
virtue,  talents,  success  and  public  estimation,  yet  we  conceive  that  we  owe 
it  to  you,  sir,  and  still  more  emphatically  to  ourselves  and  to  our  nation,  (of 
the  language  of  whose  hearts  we  presume  to  think  ourselves  at  this  mo 
ment  the  faithful  interpreters,)  to  express  the  sentiments  with  which  it  is 
contemplated. 

"  The  spectacle  of  a  whole  nation,  the  freest  and  most  enlightened  in 
the  world,  offering  by  its  representatives  the  tribute  of  unfeigned  appro 
bation  to  its  first  citizen,  however  novel  and  interesting  it  may  be,  de 
rives  all  its  luster — a  luster  which  accident  or  enthusiasm  could  not  bestow, 
and  which  adulation  would  tarnish — from  the  transcendent  merit  of  which 
it  is  the  voluntary  testimony. 

"  May  you  long  enjoy  that  liberty  which  is  so  dear  to  you,  and  to 
which  your  name  will  ever  be  so  dear.  May  your  own  virtue  and  a  na 
tion's  prayers  obtain  the  happiest  sunshine  for  the  decline  of  your  days 
and  the  choicest  of  future  blessings.  For  your  country's  sake — for  the 
sake  of  republican  liberty — it  is  our  earnest  wish  that  your  example  may 
be  the  guide  of  your  successors ;  and  thus,  after  being  the  ornament  and 
safeguard  of  the  present  age,  become  the  patrimony  of  >our 'descendants." 


208  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1796. 

The  friends  of  the  administration  endeavored  to  have  this 
address  read  and  acted  upon  immediately  ;  but  the  opposition, 
after  a  debate  in  which  all  the  party  passions  of  the  day  were 
unlisted,  succeeded  in  postponing  its  consideration  until  the 
day  following.  It  was  then  read,  paragraph  by  paragraph, 
and  debated  for  two  days  ;  the  opposition  striving  to  reduce 
its  glowing  panegyric,  and  damn  the  administration  with 
faint  praise.  Every  prominent  debater  spoke  ;  both  days  of 
the  debate  were  field  days.  The  outline  of  one  opposition 
speech,  that  of  William  B.  Giles,  of  Virginia,  will  suffice  to 
show  the  leading  grounds  of  objection  to  the  address,  and  the 
spirit  in  which  it  was  opposed.  Mr.  Giles  in  substance  said : — 

"  I  do  not  object  to  a  respectful  and  complimentary  address  to  the 
President,  yet  I  think  we  ought  not  to  carry  our  expressions  beyond  the 
bounds  of  moderation.  I  hope  we  shall  adhere  to  truth.  I  observe  many 
parts  of  the  address  which  are  objectionable.  It  is  unnatural  and  unbe 
coming  in  us  to  exult  in  our  superior  happiness,  light,  wisdom  or  advan 
tages,  and  thus  reflect  on  the  unhappy  situation  of  other  nations  in  their 
troubles.  It  is  insulting  to  them.  If  we  are  thus  happy,  it  is  well  for  us, 
and  we  should  enjoy  our  happiness  without  boasting  of  it  to  all  the  world. 

<;  As  to  those  parts  of  the  address  which  speak  of  the  wisdom  and  firm 
ness  of  the  President,  I  must  object  to  them  also.  On  reflection,  I  can  see 
a  want  of  wisdom  and  firmness  in  the  administration  during  the  last  six 
years.  I  may  be  singular  in  my  ideas,  but  I  believe  our  administration  has 
neither  been  wise  nor  firm.  I  believe,  sir,  that  a  want  of  wisdom  and 
firmness  has  brought  this  country  into  its  present  alarming  situation." 
(Danger  of  war  with  Fratice ;  exchanges  deranged ;  business  depressed  • 
panic?)  "  If,  after  such  a  view  of  the  administration,  I  were  to  come  into 
this  House  and  show  the  contrary  by  a  quiet  acquiescence  in  such  expres 
sions,  gentlemen  would  think  me  a  very  inconsistent  character.  If  we  take 
a  view  of  our  foreign  relations  we  shall  see  no  reason  to  exult  in  the  wis 
dom  or  firmness  of  the  administration.  I  think  that  nothing,  so  much  as  a 
want  of  wisdom  and  firmness,  has  brought  us  to  the  situation  in  which  we 
now  stand. 

"  If  gentlemen  had  been  satisfied  with  placing  the  President  in  the 
highest  possible  point  of  respect  among  men,  the  vote  of  the  House  would 
have  been  unanimous ;  but  the  proposal  of  such  adulation  could  never 
expect  success.  Take  a  view  of  our  internal  situation.  Behold  the  ruined 
state  of  public  and  private  credit,  which  has  never  before  been  so  deranged. 
What  a  she  neful  scene  this  city  alone  exhibits,  owing,  as  I  suppose,  to  the 


1796.]  IN     THE     HOUSE.  209 

immense  quantify  of  paper  issued."  (Intense  approval  on  the  part  of  the 
gentleman  from  Tennessee)  "  Surely  this  could  afford  no  ground  for  admi 
ration  of  the  administration  that  caused  it ! 

"  I  must  acknowledge  that  I  am  one  of  those  who  do  not  think  so 
much  of  the  President  as  some  others  do.  When  the  President  retires 
from  his  present  station  I  wish  him  to  enjoy  all  possible  happiness.  I  wish 
him  to  retire.  I  wish  that  this  was  the  moment  of  his  retirement.  I  think 
that  the  government  of  the  United  States  can  go  on  very  well  without 
him,  and  I  think  he  will  enjoy  more  happiness  in  his  retirement  than  he 
possibly  can  in  his  present  situation.  What  calamities  would  attend  the 
United  States,  and  how  short  the  duration  of  its  independence,  if  but  one 
man  could  be  found  fitted  to  conduct  the  administration.  I  think  there 
are  thousands  of  citizens  in  the  United  States  able  to  fill  that  high  office, 
and  fill  it  with  credit  to  themselves  and  advantage  to  the  country.  Much 
has  been  said,  and  by  many  people,  about  the  President's  intended  retire 
ment.  For  my  own  part,  I  must  acknowledge  that  I  feel  no  uncomforta 
ble  sensations  about  it.  I  am  perfectly  easy  in  the  prospect  of  that  event. 
It  will  be  very  extraordinary  if  gentlemen,  whose  names  in  the  yeas  and 
nays  are  found  in  opposition  to  certain  prominent  measures  of  the  admin 
istration,  should  now  come  forward  and  approve  those  measures. 

"  To  return  to  the  last  paragraph  but  one,  where  we  call  ourselves  the 
1  freest  and  most  enlightened  people  in  the  world.'  Indeed,  the  whole 
paragraph  is  objectionable.  I  disapprove  the  whole  of  it.  If  I  am  free,  if 
I  am  happy,  if  1  am  enlightened  more  than  others,  I  wish  not  to  proclaim 
it  on  the  house  top.  If  we  are  free  and  enlightened,  it  is  not  the  duty  of 
this  House  to  trumpet  it  to  the  world." 

And  much  more  to  similar  effect.  The  debate  was  con 
tinued.  Some  unimportant  emendations  were  made  in  the 
address.  The  passage  declaring  that  we  are  the  most  free  and 
enlightened  nation  was  changed  by  omitting  the  superlative. 
At  length,  toward  the  close  of  the  second  day,  Edward  Liv 
ingston  brought  the  debate  to  a  crisis,  and  to  an  end,  by  dis 
tinctly  moving  to  strike  out  the  words,  "  wise,  firm  and 
patriotic  administration ;"  and  to  insert  in  their  place, 
"  Your  firmness,  wisdom  and  patriotism."  The  very  brief 
debate  which  ensued  on  this  motion  will  both  interest  the 
reader  and  prepare  him  for  the  yeas  and  nays  : — 

"  Mr.  LIVINGSTON  could  not  say  that  all  the  acts  of  the  President  had 
been  wise  and  firm ;  but  he  would  say  that  he  believed  the  firmness,  wis- 


210  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [J1796. 

dom  and  patriotism  of  the  President,  had  been  sjgnally  conducive  to  the 
success  of  the  present  form  of  government.  He  was  willing  to  give  him 
every  mark  of  respect  possible,  but  he  believed  some  of  his  public  acts  of 
late  had  rendered  the  present  motion  necessary. 

"  Mr.  WILLIAM  SMITH,  of  South  Carolina  (one  of  the  committee  who  had 
drawn  up  the  address),  opposed  the  amendment,  as  he  thought  the  gentle 
man  who  proposed  it,  conceded  the  words  to  imply  more  than  was  meant 
by  them — they  are  not  meant  to  include  every  act  of  the  Executive.  He 
thought  that  the  administration  in  general  had  been  wise,  firm  and  pa 
triotic  ;  that  the  wisdom  and  firmness  of  the  President  had  been  conducive 
to  the  present  form  of  government.  Had  not  the  words  been  put  in  the 
reported  address,  he  thought  it  would  not  have  been  of  consequence  whether 
they  were  ever  inserted.  But  the  difference  is  very  great,  now  that  they 
are  inserted.  They  are  made  public  •  and,  to  erase  them  now,  and  substi 
tute  words  in  any  manner  deficient  in  sentiment  to  them,  would  be  to  carry 
censure  and  not  respect. 

"  Mr.  GILES  observed,  that  he  thought  the  administration  had  been 
deficient  in  wisdom.  Many  gentlemen,  he  said,  were  very  particularly 
opposed  to  the  British  treaty,  and  to  the  great  emission  of  transferable 
paper.  Could  it  then  be  supposed  these  gentlemen  could,  in  this  instance, 
so  change  their  opinions  ?  He  believed  that  the  President  possessed  both 
wisdom  and  firmness.  He  was  willing  to  compliment  the  President  as 
much  as  possible  in  his  personal  character,  but  he  could  not  think  it  appli 
cable  to  his  administration. 

"  Mr.  GILBERT  hoped  and  presumed  that  the  motion  of  his  colleague 
would  not  obtain.  He  understood  that  the  Mouse  addressed  the  President 
in  answer  to  his  speech,  always  as  a  public  man,  and  not  in  his  private  ca 
pacity.  How  extraordinary,  then,  will  it  appear  in  this  House  to  refer 
only  to  his  private  conduct !  It  is,  in  substance,  complimenting  him  as  a 
private  man.  while  the  very  words  reprobate  him  in  his  public  station. 
We  are  now  to  address  him  as  the  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  We 
may  tell  him  of  his  wisdom  and  his  firmness,  but  what  of  all  that  unless  we 
connect  it  with  his  administration  ? 

"  Mr.  ISAAC  SMITH. — The  sin  of  ingratitude  is  worse  than  the  sin  of 
witchcraft ;  and  we  shall  damn  ourselves  to  everlasting  fame  if  we  with 
hold  the  mighty  tribute  due  to  the  excellent  man  whom  we  pretend  to  ad 
dress.  Posterity,  throughout  all  future  generations,  will  cry  out  shame  on 
us.  Our  sons  will  blush  that  their  fathers  were  his  foes.  If  excess  were 
possible  on  this  occasion,  it  would  be  a  glorious  fault,  and  worth  a  dozen 
of  little,  sneaking,  frigid  virtues.  I  abhor  a  grudging  bankrupt  payment, 
where  the  debtor  is  much  more  benefited  than  the  creditor.  The  gentle 
man  from  Virginia  misrepresents  his  own  constituents — I  am  sure  he  does 
all  the  rest  of  the  Union.  On  the  present  occasion  we  ought  not  to  con- 


1796.]  IN     THE     HOUSE.  211 

suit  our  own  little  feelings  and  sensibilities.  We  should  speak  with  the 
heart  and  in  the  voice  of  millions,  and  then  we  should  speak  warm  and 
loud.  What  !  '  damn  with  faint  praise,'  and  suppress,  or  freeze  the 
warm,  energetic,  grateful  sensations  of  almost  every  honest  heart  from 
Maine  to  Tennessee !  I  will  not  do  it !  Every  line  shall  burn !  This  is  a 
left-handed  way  of  adoring  the  people. 

"  Mr.  DAYTON  (the  Speaker)  said,  the  motion  then  before  them  was  of 
great  importance,  and  every  man  who  thought  favorably  of  the  President's 
administration  should  there  make  a  stand.  For,  if  the  words  were  struck 
out,  it  would  convey  an  idea  to  the  world  that  it  was  the  opinion  of  that 
House  that,  the  administration  of  the  President  had  neither  been  wise  nor 
patriotic.  Gentlemen  might  very  well  concur  in  the  address  in  its  present 
form,  who  did  not  think  that  every  single  act  of  the  President  had  been 
wise  or  firm,  since  it  was  his  administration  in  general  which  was  referred 
to,  and  not  each  individual  act.  He  hoped,  therefore,  the  amendment 
offered  would  be  decidedly  opposed,  and  that  the  words  proposed  to  be 
struck  out  would  be  retained. 

"  Mr.  G-ALLATIN  spoke  to  the  same,  or  similar  purport.  He  did  not 
approve  all  the  acts  of  the  administration.  The  British  treaty  he  could  not 
call  a  successful  measure.  But  as  to  the  funding  and  banking  systems 
that  had  been  adopted,  whatever  evils  had  come  from  them,  they  were 
legislative  acts,  for  which  the  administration  could  not  be  held  accountable. 
He  should  vote  for  the  original  address." 

The  question  was  taken  on  Mr.  Livingston's  amendment, 
and  decided  in  the  negative.  The  whole  address  was  then 
read  with  the  slight  amendments  previously  ordered,  and  the 
question  was  about  to  be  submitted  as  to  its  final  acceptance, 
when  Mr.  Thomas  Blount  of  North  Carolina  demanded  the 
yeas  and  nays,  in  order  that  posterity  might  see  that  he  did 
not  consent  to  the  address.  Posterity,  which  has  nearly  for 
gotten  Mr.  Blount,  will  doubtless  oblige  him  so  far.  The 
yeas  and  nays  were  then  taken,  with  this  result :  For  ac 
cepting  the  address,  sixty-seven  votes  ;  against  its  accept 
ance,  twelve.  The  following  gentlemen  voted  against  it  : 
Thomas  Blount,  Isaac  Coles,  William  B.  Giles,  Christopher 
Greenup,  James  Holland,  ANDREW  JACKSON,  Edward  Liv 
ingston,  Matthew  Locke,  William  Lyman,  Samuel  Maclay, 
Nathaniel  Macon,  and  Abraham  Yenable. 

Jackson's  vote  on   this  occasion   merely  shows  that  in 


212  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1796. 

1796  he  belonged  to  the  most  radical  wing  of  the  Jefferso- 
nian  party,  the  "  Mountain"  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 
His  vote  does  honor  to  his  courage  and  independence,  if  not 
to  his  judgment.  It  was  impossible  for  a  natural  fighting 
man,  such  as  he,  to  approve  Jay's  treaty,  or  sympathize  with 
England  against  France,  or  forgive  the  administration  for  its 
seeming  tolerance  of  the  Indian  massacres  in  Tennessee. 

On  the  day  following,  at  two  in  the  afternoon,  the  mem 
bers  of  the  House,  as  the  courteous  custom  then  was,  marched 
in  procession  to  the  residence  of  the  President,  who  received 
them  in  his  long  dining-room,  where  they  formed  a  semicir 
cle  round  him,  as  he  stood  before  the  fire-place.  The  Speaker 
read  the  address  which  had  cost  so  much  trouble.  The  Pres 
ident  briefly  replied.  The  members  then  returned  to  their 
chamber,  and  this  great  business  was  done. 

Jackson's  next  vote  was  also  Jeffersonian.  Savannah, 
then  called  a  "  frontier  town  of  Georgia,"  was  nearly  de 
stroyed  by  fire,  and  Congress  was  asked  for  an  appropriation 
in  aid  of  the  sufferers.  The  appropriation  was  refused  by  a 
majority  of  fifty-five  to  twenty-four  ;  Andrew  Jackson  voting 
against  it. 

On  Thursday,  December  29th,  1796,  the  member  from 
Tennessee  first  addressed  the  House.  In  1793,  while  Ten 
nessee  was  still  a  Territory  under  the  federal  government, 
General  Sevier,  induced  thereto  by  extreme  provocation  and 
the  imminent  peril  of  the  settlements,  led  an  expedition 
against  the  Indians  without  waiting  for  the  authorization  of 
the  general  government.  One  of  those  who  served  on  this 
expedition  was  a  young  student  by  the  name  of  Hugh  L. 
White,  afterwards  Judge,  Senator,  and  candidate  for  the 
presidency.  Young  White  killed  a  great  chief,  the  King 
fisher,  in  battle.  After  the  return  of  the  expedition,  it 
became  a  question  whether  the  government  would  pay  the 
expenses  of  an  expedition  which  it  had  not  authorized.  To 
test  the  question,  Hugh  L.  White  sent  a  petition  to  Con 
gress  asking  compensation  for  his  services.  On  the  day  named 
above,  the  subject  came  before  the  Committee  of  the  Whole 


1796.]  IN     THE     HOUSE.  213 

House  ;  when  a  rep  jrt  on  Mr.  White's  petition,  from  the  Sec 
retary  of  War,  was  read.  The  report  recounted  the  facts,  and 
added,  that  it  was  for  the  House  to  decide  whether  the  prov 
ocation  and  danger  were  such  as  to  justify  the  calling  out  of 
the  troops.  -Whereupon,  "  Mr.  A.Jackson"  rose  and  said  : — 

"  Mr.  Chairman  :  I  do  not  doubt  that,  by  a  recurrence  to 
the  papers  presented,  it  will  appear  evident  that  the  meas 
ures  pursued  on  the  occasion,  were  both  just  and  necessary. 
When  it  was  seen  that  war  was  urged  upon  the  State  ;  that 
the  knife  and  the  tomahawk  were  held  over  the  heads  of  wo 
men  and  children,  and  that  peaceable  citizens  were  murdered, 
it  was  time  to  make  resistance.  Some  of  the  assertions  of 
the  Secretary  of  War  are  not  founded  in  fact,  particularly 
with  respect  to  the  expedition  having  been  undertaken  for 
the  avowed  purpose  of  carrying  the  war  into  the  Cherokee 
country.  Indeed,  those  assertions  are  contradicted  by  a  ref 
erence  to  General  Sevicr's  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  War.  I 
trust  it  will  not  be  presuming  too  much  when  I  say,  that, 
from  being  an  inhabitant  of  the  country,  I  have  some  knowl 
edge  of  this  business.  From  June  to  the  end  of  October,  the 
militia  acted  entirely  on  the  defensive,  when  twelve  hundred 
Indians  came  upon  them  and  carried  their  station,  and  threat 
ened  to  carry  the  seat  of  government.  In  such  a  state  of 
things,  would  the  secretary,  upon  whom  the  executive  power 
rested  in  the  absence  of  the  governor,  have  been  justified,  had 
he  not  adopted  the  measure  he  did  of  pursuing  the  enemy  ? 
I  believe  he  would  not.  I  believe  the  expedition  was  just  and 
necessary,  and  that  the  claim  of  Mr.  White  ought  to  be 
granted.  I,  therefore,  propose  a  resolution  to  the  following 
effect  :— 

"  Resolved,  That  General  Sevier's  expedition  into  the 
Cherokee  nation,  in  the  year  1793,  was  a  just  and  necessary 
measure,  and  that  provision  ought  to  be  made  by  law  for  pay 
ing  the  expenses  thereof." 

Some  debate  ensued,  during  which  it  was  proposed  to 
refer  the  subject  to  the  Committee  on  Claims,  to  which  Mr. 
Jackson  objected. 


214  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1796. 

"  I  own,"  said  he,  "  that  I  am  not  very  well  acquainted 
with  the  rules  of  the  House  ;  but  from  the  best  idea  I  can 
form  this  would  be  a  very  circuitous  mode  of  doing  busi 
ness.  Why  now  refer  it  to  the  Committee  on  Claims,  when 
all  the  facts  are  stated  in  this  report,  I  know  not.  If  this 
is  the  usual  mode  of  doing  business,  I  hope  it  will  not  be 
referred/' 

The  further  consideration  of  the  subject  was  soon  after 
deferred,  and  the  House  adjourned. 

On  the  day  following,  Mr.  Andrew  Jackson  presented  a 
petition  from  George  Colbert,  a  Chickasaw  chief,  who  asked 
compensation  for  supplies  furnished  by  his  tribe  to  a  detach 
ment  of  Tennessee  volunteers.  The  petition  was  referred  to 
the  Committee  on  Claims.  After  which,  the  petition  of  Mr. 
Hugh  L.  White  again  came  up.  The  resolution  offered  on 
the  previous  day  was  read,  and  the  mover  thereof,  Mr.  Jack 
son,  again  addressed  the  House. 

"Already/'  said  he,  "  the  rations  found  for  the  troops  of 
this  expedition  have  been  paid  for  by  the  Secretary  of  War,  and 
I  can  see  no  reasonable  objection  to  the  payment  of  the  whole 
expense.  As  the  troops  were  called  out  by  a  superior  officer, 
they  had  no  right  to  doubt  his  authority.  Admit  a  contrary 
doctrine,  and  it  will  strike  at  the  very  root  of  subordination. 
It  would  be  saying  to  soldiers,  i  Before  you  obey  the  com 
mand  of  your  superior  officer,  you  have  a  right  to  inquire 
into  the  legality  of  the  service  upon  which  you  are  about  to 
be  employed,  and  until  you  are  satisfied,  you  may  refuse  to 
take  the  field/  This,  I  believe,  is  a  principle  which  can  not 
be  acted  upon.  General  Sevier  was  bound  to  obey  the  orders 
he  had  received  to  undertake  the  expedition.  The  officers 
under  him  were  obliged  to  obey  him.  They  went  with  full 
confidence  that  the  United  States  would  pay  them,  believing 
that  the  United  States  had  appointed  such  officers  as  would 
not  call  them  into  the  field  without  proper  authority.  If 
even  the  expedition  had  been  unconstitutional,  which  I  am 
far  from  believing,  it  ought  not  to  affect  the  soldier,  since  he 
had  no  choice  in  the  business,  being  obliged  to  obey  his  su- 


1796.]  IN   THE    HOUSE.  215 

perior.  Indeed,  as  the  provisions  have  been  paid  for,  and  as 
the  ration  and  pay  rolls  are  always  considered  as  a  check 
upon  each  other,  I  hope  no  objection  will  be  made  to  the  reso 
lution  which  I  have  moved." 

A  gentleman  having  remarked  that  he  could  see  no  con 
nection  between  the  resolution  and  the  petition,  Mr.  Jackson 
explained : — 

"  By  referring  to  the  report,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Sec 
retary  of  War  has  stated  that  to  allow  the  prayer  of  this 
petition  would  be  to  establish  a  principle  that  will  apply  to 
the  whole  of  the  militia  in  that  expedition.  If  this  petition 
er's  claim  is  a  just  one,  therefore,  the  present  petition  ought 
to  go  to  the  whole,  as  it  is  unnecessary  for  every  soldier  em 
ployed  on  that  expedition  to  apply  personally  to  this  House 
for  compensation." 

The  question  was  debated  at  considerable  length.  Mr. 
James  Madison  spoke  strongly  on  Jackson's  side.  The  sub 
ject  was  finally  referred  to  a  select  committee  of  five,  Mr.  A. 
Jackson  chairman  ;  who  reported,  of  course,  in  favor  of  the 
petitioner,  and  recommended  that  the  sum  of  twenty-two 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixteen  dollars  be  appropriated 
for  the  payment  of  the  troops,  which  was  done. 

The  member  from  Tennessee  did  not  again  address  the 
House  of  Representatives.  His  name  appears  in  the  records 
thenceforth  only  in  the  lists  of  yeas  and  nays. 

In  a  debate  on  direct  taxation,  the  question  was  warmly 
contested  whether  slaves  should  be  taxed,  as  well  as  land. 
Jackson  voted  for  taxing  them,  as  did  a  large  majority  of  the 
members,  including  those  from  the  South.  Mr.  Benton* 
explains  this  vote  by  saying,  that  in  the  slave  States  the  peo 
ple  were  used  to  the  taxation  of  both  slaves  and  land,  and 
that  to  have  omitted  slaves  would  have  seemed  to  them  like 
sparing  the  rich,  and  burdening  the  poor  with  the  whole 
weight  of  direct  taxation. 

On  the  eighth  of  February,  1797,  Jackson  saw  Mr.  Vice 

*  Benton's  Abridgment,  ii.  56. 


216  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1797. 

President  Adams,  in  the  presence  of  both  Houses  of  Con 
gress,  open  the  packets  containing  the  electoral  votes  for  a 
successor  to  General  Washington.  For  Adams,  seventy-one ; 
Jefferson,  sixty-eight ;  Thomas  Pinckney,  fifty-nine  ;  Burr, 
thirty  ;  with  scattering  votes  for  Samuel  Adams,  Jay,  Clin 
ton,  and  others.  The  Vice  President  modestly  announced 
that  the  "  person"  who  had  received  seventy-one  votes  we., 
elected  President.  A  few  weeks  later,  I  presume,  the  honor 
able  member  from  Tennessee  witnessed  the  inauguration ; 
"  scarcely  a  dry  eye  but  Washington's  ;"  "  the  sublimest 
thing  yet  exhibited  in  America/'  said  the  chief  actor  in  the 
scene. 

Jackson's  other  votes  during  the  session  were  these  :  for 
finishing  the  three  frigates,  United  States,  Constellation,  and 
Constitution  ;  against  the  continuance  of  the  system  of  buy 
ing  peace  with  Algiers  ;  against  an  appropriation  of  fourteen 
thousand  dollars  for  the  purchase  of  furniture  for  the  new 
presidential  mansion  at  Washington  ;  against  the  removal  of 
the  restriction  which  confined  the  expenditure  of  public 
money  to  the  specific  objects  for  which  each  sum  was  appro 
priated. 

Congress  adjourned  on  the  third  of  March,  and  Andrew 
Jackson  took  a  final  farewell  of  the  House  ;  for  at  the  war 
session  of  the  following  summer  he  did  not  appear. 


CHAPTER     XIX. 

IN     THE     SENATE. 

JACKSON'S  conduct  in  the  House  of  Representatives  was 
keenly  approved  by  Tennesseeans.  Senator  Cocke  wrote 
home  during  the  session :  "  Your  representative,  Mr.  Jack 
son,  has  distinguished  himself  by  the  spirited  manner  in 
which  he  opposed  the  report  (of  the  Secretary  of  War,  upon 


1797.]  IN     THE     SENATE.  217 

the  petition  of  Hugh  L.  White).  Notwithstanding  the  mis 
representations  of  the  Secretary,  I  hope  the  claim  will  be 
allowed  ;  if  it  is,  a  principle  will  be  established  for  the  pay 
ment  of  all  services  done  by  the  militia  of  the  Territory."'" 
When,  therefore,  the  news  came,  soon  after,  that  Mr.  Jack 
son  had  been  completely  successful,  and  that,  in  consequence 
of  his  exertions,  every  man  in  Tennessee,  who  had  done  ser 
vices  or  lost  property  in  the  Indian  wars,  might  hope  for 
compensation  from  the  general  government,  it  may  be  con 
cluded  that  the  representative  was  a  very  popular  man. 

Accordingly,  a  vacancy  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States 
occurring  this  year,  Andrew  Jackson  received  the  appoint 
ment,  and  returned  to  Philadelphia  in  the  autumn  of  1797, 
a  Senator.  The  session  began  on  the  thirteenth  of  Novem 
ber.  On  the  twenty-second,  "  Andrew  Jackson,  appointed  a 
Senator  by  the  State  of  Tennessee,  produced  his  credentials, 
which  were  read ;"  whereupon,  "  the  oath  required  by  law 
was  administered"  to  him  aiid  other  new  members,  by  the 
temporary  chairman  of  the  Senate  ;  Vice  President  Jefferson 
not  having  yet  arrived. 

And  that  is  nearly  all  we  know  of  the  career  of  Andrew 
Jackson  in  the  Senate  at  that  time.  His  record  is  a  blank. 
In  the  list  of  yeas  and  nays,  his  name  never  occurs,  though 
that  of  his  colleague  is  never  wanting. 

The  business  of  that  session  was  so  late  in  reaching  the 
Senate  that  four  months  passed  before  there  was  a  single 
division  of  sufficient  importance  to  be  recorded  in  Mr.  Ben- 
ton's  voluminous  Abridgment.  Congress  was  waiting,  the 
President  was  waiting,  the  new  army  was  waiting,  the  coun 
try  was  waiting,  to  learn  the  issue  of  negotiations  with  France  ; 
to  learn  whether  it  was  necessary  to  legislate  for  peace  or  for 
war.  The  Senators  from  Tennessee,  meanwhile,  were  occu 
pied,  so  far  as  they  were  occupied  at  all,  with  the  arrange 
ment  of  the  dispute  between  Tennessee  and  the  general 
government  on  the  subject  of  the  Cherokee  boundary,  re- 

*  Ramsey's  Tennessee,  page  677. 


218  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1798. 

specting  which  the  new  State  had  sent  to  Congress  a  weighty 
memorial. 

We  have  one  letter  written  during  this  session  by  Senator 
Jackson  to  General  Kobertson,  the  father  of  the  Cumberland 
settlements,  with  whom  Jackson  was  afterward  en  terms  of 
cordial  intimacy.  The  allusion  to  Bonaparte  in  this  letter  is 
very  noticeable.  We  shall  see,  later,  that  Jackson  was  an 
ardent  Bonapartist  down  to  the  end  of  that  conqueror's 
career  : — 

ANDREW  JACKSON  TO  GENERAL  JAMES  ROBERTSON. 

PHILADELPHIA,  January  llth  (or  21st),  1798. 

aSra: — Congressional  business  progresses  slowly;  all  important  ques 
tions  postponed  until  we  are  informed  of  the  result  of  our  negotiation  with 
France. 

The  Tennessee  memorial  has  attracted  the  attention  of  the  two 
Houses  for  some  time.  Many  difficulties  presented  themselves,  and  many 
delays  thrown  in  the  way.  Policy  dictated  to  us  that  the  only  thing  that 
could  strike  at  the  root  of  opposition,  and  secure  success,  was  a  nomination 
of  commissioners  by  the  President  for  the  purpose  of  holding  a  treaty  with 
the  Cherokees.  This  was  fortunately  brought  about,  and,  I  believe,  will 
have  the  desired  effect.  Opposition  is  on  the  decline,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
but  a  treaty  will  be  ordered.  The  Senate  agree  in  the  expediency  of  the 
measure,  but  differ  with  the  President  in  the  number  of  commissioners 
necessary.  This  has  occupied  the  Senate  to  delay  in  agreeing  to  the  nomi 
nation  of  the  President;  and  as  those  in  nomination  may  be  withdrawn, 
and  others  presented,  I  am  not  at  liberty  to  give  you  their  names. 

It  appears  to  be  the  wish  of  the  President,  by  the  treaty  contempla 
ted,  to  purchase  all  the  land  from  the  Indians  that  they  will  sell ;  and  I  do 
hope  that  Tennessee  river  will  become  the  line.  When  this  is  completely 
acted  upon  by  both  Houses,  I  will  write  you  more  in  detail ;  and  should  it 
be  carried  into  effect,  of  which  I  have  no  doubt,  I  trust  it  will  be  acknowl 
edged  that  the  delegation  have  done  their  duty  so  far  as  related  to  that 
object. 

France  has  finally  concluded  a  treaty  with  the  Emperor  and  the  King 
of  Sardinia,  and  is  now  turning  her  force  toward  Great  Britain.  Bona 
parte,  with  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  troops  (used  to  conquer),  is 
ordered  on  the  coast,  and  called  the  army  of  England.  Do  not  then  be 
surprised  if  my  next  letter  should  announce  a  revolution  in  England. 
Should  Bonaparte  make  a  landing  on  the  English  shore,  tyranny  will  be 
humbled,  a  throne  crushed,  and  a  republic  will  spring  from  the  wreck,  and 


1798.]  IN     THE     SENATE.  219 

millions  of  distressed  people  restored  to  the  rights  of  man  by  the  con 
quering  arm  of  Bonaparte.  I  am,  sir  with  sincere  respect,  your  most 
obedient  servant, 

ANDREW  JACKSON.* 

In  April,  1798,  Senator  Jackson  asked  and  obtained  leave 
of  absence  for  the  remainder  of  the  session.  He  went  home 
to  Nashville,  and  immediately  resigned  his  seat  in  the  Senate. 
This  he  did  partly  because  he  was  worn  out  with  the  tedium 
of  that  honorable  idleness  ;  partly  because  he  felt  himself  out 
of  place  in  so  slow  and  "  dignified"  a  body  ;  partly  because 
he  was  disgusted  with  the  administration  and  its  projects  ; 
partly  because  it  was  "  understood"  that,  if  he  resigned,  his 
connection,  General  Daniel  Smith,  would  be  appointed  to  the 
vacated  seat ;  but  chiefly  for  reasons,  personal  and  pecuniary, 
which  will  be  explained  hereafter. 

What,  then,  becomes  of  Mr.  Webster's  oft-quoted  report 
of  Jefferson's  recollections  of  Senator  Jackson  ?  In  1824  Mr. 
Webster  spent  some  days  at  Monticello,  and  noted  down  the 
substance  of  what  he  heard  and  saw  there.  He  represents  Mr. 
Jefferson  as  saying,  "  I  feel  much  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of 
seeing  General  Jackson  President.  He  is  one  of  the  most 
unfit  men  I  know  of  for  such  a  place.  He  has  very  little 
respect  for  law  or  constitutions,  and  is,  in  fact,  an  able  mili 
tary  chief.  His  passions  are  terrible.  When  I  was  President 
of  the  Senate,  he  was  Senator,  and  he  could  never  speak  on 
account  of  the  rashness  of  his  feelings.  I  have  seen  him 
attempt  it  repeatedly,  and  as  often  choke  with  rage.  His 
passions  are,  no  doubt,  cooler  now  ;  he  has  been  much  tried 
since  I  knew  him,  but  he  is  a  dangerous  man." 

All  of  Mr.  Webster's  Monticello  notes  have  been  called  in 
question,  and  some  of  them  are  known  to  be  incorrect.  Mr. 
Randall,  the  biographer  of  Jefferson,  prints  a  letter  from  aone 
as  familiar  with  Mr.  Jefferson,  with  his  views  and  modes  of 
expression,  as  any  one  ever  was,"  which  letter  contains  the 
following  passage  : — "  You  ask  me  if  Mr.  Webster  has  not  too 
strongly  colored  the  Jackson  portrait.  I  can  not  pretend  to 

*  Putnam's  History  of  Middle  Tennessee,  page  544. 


220  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1798. 

know  what  my  grandfather  said  to  Mr.  Webster,  nor  can  I 
believe  Mr.  Webster  capable  of  misstatement.  Still,  I  think 
the  copy  of  the  portrait  incorrect,  as  .throwing  out  all  the  lights 
and  giving  only  the  shadows.  I  have  heard  my  grandfather 
speak  with  great  admiration  of  General  Jackson's  military 
talent.  If  he  called  him  a  ( dangerous  man/  e  unfit  for  the 
place'  to  which  the  nation  eventually  called  him,  I  think  it 
must  have  been  entirely  with  reference  to  his  general  idea 
that  a  miltary  chieftain  was  no  proper  head  for  a  peaceful 
republic,  as  ours  was  in  those  days.  I  do  not  myself  remem 
ber  to  have  heard  him  say  any  thing  about  General  Jackson 
in  connection  with  this  subject  except  that  he  thought  his 
nomination  a  bad  precedent  for  the  future,  and  that  a  suc 
cessful  soldier  was  not  the  sort  of  candidate  for  the  presiden 
tial  chair.  He  did  not  like  to  see  the  people  run  away  with 
ideas  of  military  glory."* 

Still,  Mr.  Jefferson's  words  may  have  been  correctly  re 
ported.  And,  indeed,  there  were  moments,  during  that  ses 
sion  of  Congress,  when  a  fighting  man  of  the  Jackson  stamp 
may  have  choked  with  fury.  The  insolence  of  the  French 
Directory,  and  Mr.  Adams'  wise  and  humane  reluctance  to 
appeal  to  arms  were  enough  to  excite  the  ire  of  the  Senator 
from  Tennessee.  The  reader  need  only  be  reminded  that  this 
was  the  time  when  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  C.  C.  Pinckney, 
and  Elbridge  Gerry,  the  most  imposing  embassy  ever  sent  by 
the  United  States  to  a  foreign  country,  were  refused  recogni 
tion  by  the  French  government,  with  peculiar  circumstances 
of  indignity  and  insult ;  while  the  spoliations  upon  Amer 
ican  commerce  by  French  privateers  continued.  And  yet 
President  Adams  did  not  recommend  a  declaration  of  war  ! 
Even  Washington  wondered  at  the  President's  forbearance. 
This  noble  hesitation  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Adams,  this  refusal 
to  regard  the  conduct  of  the  corrupt  and  bankrupt  Directory 
as  the  act  of  FRANCE  was  something  most  uncongenial  to  the 
feelings  of  an  ardent  and  young  lover  of  his  country. 

*  Randall's  Jefferson,  vol.  iii.,  page  507. 


1798.]  IN     THE     SENATE.  221 

There  was  a  President,  forty  years  later,  who  brought  a 
dispute  with  France  to  a  crisis  in  a  most  summary  manner. 
The  time  had  come  for  summary  measures.  It  is  probable 
that  the  insight  which  that  President  obtained  into  French 
character  at  this  exciting  time,  had  much  to  do  with  his 
course  in  the  days  of  Louis  Philippe.  It  is,  perhaps,  a  coin 
cidence  worth  noting,  that  Louis  Philippe,  a  young  fugitive 
then  from  distracted  France,  passed  through  Tennessee  and 
visited  Nashville  just  as  Jackson  was  returning  home  from 
his  first  visit  to  Philadelphia.  The  French  prince  was  at 
Nashville  in  May,  1797.* 

Of  Jackson's  mode  of  life  in  Philadelphia  during  his  two 
sessions,  we  know  scarcely  anything.  From  his  letters  of  a 
later  period  I  learn  that  he  became  acquainted  there  with 
that  truly  remarkable  character,  William  Duane,  of  the 
Aurora,  mos*t  potent  of  Eepublican  journals.  Nothing  is 
more  likely  than  that  he  dandled  upon  his  knee  Mr.  Duane's 
little  son,  William,  whom  he  was  destined,  one  day,  to  make 
a  cabinet  minister.  He  formed  a  very  high  idea  of  Mr. 
Duane's  character  and  talents.  Born  to  fortune  in  the  State 
of  New  York,  disinherited  for  marrying  a  lady  of  a  religion 
different  from  that  of  his  family,  young  Duane  had  wandered 
off  to  the  East  Indies,  where  he  edited  a  paper,  and  took  the 
part  of  the  Sepoys  in  one  of  their  rebellions  against  British 
authority.  He  was  forced  to  leave  the  country,  and  went  to 
England,  where  he  procured  employment  on  the  newspaper 
which  is  now  known  as  the  London  Times.  Keturning  to 

his  native  land,  he  threw  himself  into  the  politics  of  that 

9 

*  "  He  (king  Louis  Philippe)  inquired  from  what  States  we  came,  and  said  he 
had  been  as  far  west  -as  Nashville,  Tennessee,  and  had  often  slept  in  the  woods 
quite  as  soundly  as  he  ever  did  in  more  luxurious  quarters.  Ho  begged  pardon 
of  Mr.  Carr,  who  was  from  South  Carolina,  for  saying  that  he  had  found  tho 
southern  taverns  not  particularly  good.  He  preferred  the  North.  .  .  He  speaks 
the  language  with  all  tho  careless  correctness  and  fluency  of  a  vernacular  tongue, 
We  were  all  surprised  at  it.  It  is  American  English  however.  He  has  not  a 
particle  of  the  cockney  drawl,  half  Irish  and  half  Scotch,  with  which  many  En 
glishmen  speak." — Pencillings  by  the  Way.  B>j  N.  P.  Willis.  Letter  XVIL 
VOL.  I. 15 


222  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1798. 

turbulent  period  which  followed  the  French  Revolution.  He 
wrote  a  history  of  the  French  Revolution.  He  wrote  learn 
edly  on  military  subjects.  He  joined  Mr.  Bache  in  the  editor 
ship  of  the  Aurora,  and  wrote  so  powerfully  in  behalf  of 
Jefferson  and  Republicanism,  that  he  long  enjoyed  the  credit 
of  having  effected  the  first  national  triumph  of  the  Republican 
party. 

With  Aaron  Burr,  who  had  taken  a  leading  part  in  ad 
vocating  the  prompt  admission  of  Tennessee  into  the  Union, 
and  who  then  ranked  next  to  Jefferson  in  the  esteem  of  Re 
publicans,  Jackson  became  acquainted,  as  a  matter  of  course. 
Burr  was  omnipotent  with  your  honest  Country  Member. 
That  Jackson  was  pleased  with  the  man  and  gratified  with  his 
attentions,  there  is  abundant  reason  to  believe.  I  imagine, 
too,  that  the  Tenneeseean  caught  from  Burr  something  of  that 
winning  courtliness  of  manner  for  which  he  was  afterwards 
distinguished  above  all  the  gentlemen  of  his  time,  except 
Tecumseh  and  Charles  X.*  Occasionally,  I  presume,  the 
member  from  Tennessee  might  have  been  seen  at  the  house 
of  Vice  President  Jefferson,  the  great  chief  of  the  party  to 
which  he  was  attached.  From  later  letters  of  Jackson's,  it 
is  to  be  inferred  that  his  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Jefferson,  at 
this  time,  was  somewhat  intimate. 

His  most  admired  acquaintance  among  the  public  men  of 
the  day  appears  to  have  been  Edward  Livingston,  the  Repub 
lican  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  from  New 
York  ;  one  of  the  intellectual  young  men  of  that  time  who 
went  along  with  Jefferson  heart  and  soul  in  his  political  opin 
ions.  A  true  Democrat,  a  lover  of  Jackson — we  shall  meet 
him  again  ere  long,  and  often,  and  get  better  acquainted  with 
him  before  we  part.  There  is  a  notice  in  an  old  number  of 
the  Democratic  Itevieic  of  this  early  intimacy  between  Edward 
Livingston  and  Andrew  Jackson  ;  but  it  is,  unfortunately  for 
our  purpose,  written  in  the  style  which  official  organs  are 
wont  to  employ  when  they  discourse  of  Presidents  and  Secre- 

*  These  two  exceptions  alone  I  have  heard  made  by  those  competent  to  j"'^ge. 


1798.]  IN      THE      SENATE.  223 

tarics  of  State.  Nevertheless,  as  it  is  the  only  glimmer  of 
light  now  attainable  on  this  part  of  Jackson's  career,  the 
reader  may  care  to  avail  himself  of  it : — 

"  It  was  while  Livingston  was  in  Congress,  that  was  formed  that  inti 
mate  friendship  between  him  and  Andrew  Jackson,  which  lasted  for  nearly 
half  a  century.  Never  were  two  natures  more  totally  unlike  attracted 
toward  each  other  by  those  inexplicable  sympathies  which  often  link  men 
the  more  closely  together  by  reason  of  the  very  causes  which  would  seem 
to  tend  to  create  a  reciprocal  repulsion.  The  one,  of  a  contemplative  spirit, 
speculative,  endowed  with  a  great  power  of  analysis,  but  judging  slowly — 
studying  man,  but  from  his  studious  habits  mingling  but  rarely  among  their 
masses,  and  then  rather  in  their  state  of  aggregation  than  in  the  isolated 
individual — born  of  an  opulent  family,  and  educated  in  the  midst  of  the 
most  polished  society  of  the  countiy,  and  among  some  of  the  most  distin 
guished  men  in  France — fond  of  the  arts,  and  of  letters,  having  cultivated 
with  equal  zeal  that  science  which  gives  force  and  accuracy  to  thought,  and 
that  polite  literature  which  teaches  to  clothe  it  in  the  forms  that  adorn  its 
manifestations  to  the  minds  of  others. 

':  The  other,  sprung  from  the  ranks  of  the  democracy  in  the  broadest 
sense  of  the  word — owing  to  himself,  and  to  himself  alone,  both  his  educa 
tion  and  his  fortune — having  encountered  nothing  but  obstacles  in  his  path, 
owing  to  the  people  alone  his  advancement,  and  cherishing  a  perpetual 
remembrance  of  their  patronage — marching  straight  up  to  difficulty,  and 
trampling  it  under  foot,  without  ever  turning  it — in  all  that  regards  science 
and  letters  having  had  leisure  only  to  study  elementary  books,  but," — 
etc.,  etc.,  etc. 

"  This  high  and  bold  spirit  exercised  upon  me,  from  the  first  interview, 
the  power  of  an  irresistible  spell.  I  loved  to  hear  him  relate  to  me  the 
struggles  of  his  youth  with  poverty  and  ignorance ;  his  childish  and  pa 
triotic  delight  on  the  day  when,  like  a  young  courser,  he  bounded  into  the 
forest,  rifle  in  hand,  to  seek  the  continental  troops  encamped  on  the  eve  of 
the  first  battle  in  which  he  felt  the  movement  of  his  warlike  instinct.  In 
Congress  he  spoke  but  rarely ;  but  when  he  did  rise,  shaking  his  hair,  and 
surveying  the  assembly  with  his  eagle  glance,  the  most  profound  silence 
reigned  throughout  it. 

"  I  once  had  the  opportunity  of  hearing  Jackson  speak  of  the  origin  of  his 
intimacy  with  Livingston.  '  I  felt  myself  suddenly  attracted  toward  him,' 
he  said,  '  by  the  gentleness  of  his  manners;  the  charm  of  his  conversation, 
gay  without  frivolity,  instruc  ive  without  the  ostentation  of  instructing ;  by 
the  profound  acquaintance  he  already  possessed  of  the  theories  of  society, 
and  of  the  laws  in  their  relation  to  the  characters  of  nations ;  by  his  un 
limited  confidence  in  the  sagacity  of  the  people,  and  of  their  capability  of 


224  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1798. 

self-government,  through  the  agency  of  representatives  specially  instructed 
to  express  the  opinion  of  their  constituents  on  great  questions  of  general 
interest,  still  more  than  on  those  of  local  concern ;  and  above  all,  by  that 
lovely  and  holy  philanthropy,  which  impelled  him  from  his  youth  to  miti 
gate  the  severity  of  those  penal  laws  whose  cruelties  serve  only  to  inspire 
in  the  masses  a  ferocity  that  always  maintains  an  equilibrium  with  that  of 
the  laws  which  govern  them.'  "* 

There  is  a  basis  of  truth  in  this  high-flown  fragment. 
The  two  men  had  a  cordial  esteem  for  one  another,  and  re 
tained  it  as  long  as  they  lived.  At  this  moment,  a  bust  of 
Edward  Livingston  adorns  the  hall  of  the  Hermitage,  and  a 
portrait  of  Jackson,  the  gift  of  the  General  to  his  aid-de 
camp,  is  among  the  most  cherished  treasures  of  Mr.  Living 
ston's  family. 

Philadelphia  was  a  gay  place  at  that  time,  and  particu 
larly  during  the  sessions  of  Congress.  Country  members  must 
have  deplored  the  removal  of  the  seat  of  government  to  the 
wilderness  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac.  The  advertisements 
in  the  papers  of  that  day  show  an  unexpected  variety  of  pub 
lic  amusements.  On  the  3d  of  January,  1797,  according  to 
"Claypoole's  American  Daily  Advertizer,"  the  people  of 
Philadelphia,  besides  having  the  privilege  of  visiting  Mr. 
Peale's  New  Museum,  had  their  choice  of  visiting  the  follow 
ing  entertainments  : — 

At  the  "  Old  Theater,  Cedar  street,"  there  was  the  famous 
Signor  Falconi,  who  bound  himself  to  perform  marvelous 
feats,  as  per  advertisement :  "  This  evening,  Signor  Falconi 
will  give  another  of  his  philosophical  performances,  when,  by 
particular  desire,  will  be  exhibited  the  so  much  admired  ex 
periment  which  was  performed  the  first  night,  viz.,  the  Dove. 
The  performer  will  request  any  person  to  write  any  question 
they  please  on  paper,  who  will  be  at  liberty  to  put  it  into  a 
loaded  pistol,  and  discharge  it  out  of  the  window  ;  the  exhib 
itor  will  neither  see  nor  touch  the  paper  ;  and,  to  the  aston 
ishment  of  the  spectators,  a  dove  will  instantly  appear  with 

*  Democratic  Review,  vol.  viii.,  p.  368. 


1798.]  IN      THE     SENATE.  225 

the  answer  in  his  bill — with  other  new  experiments.  Signer 
Falconi,  being  ambitious  to  contribute  as  much  as  is  in  his 
power  to  the  amusement  of  the  generous  citizens,  takes  this 
opportunity  of  improving  his  performance  by  a  lively  represent 
ation  of  an  engagement  between  two  Frigates,  or  a  Sea  Fight. 
This  exhibition  will  undoubtedly  be  very  entertaining  to  the 
spectators ;  they  will  be  able  to  distinguish  the  maneuvering  of 
the  two  ships,  the  sight  of  the  guns  as  they  are  firing,  with  the 
concomitants,  the  rigging  and  sails  made  ragged  by  the  shot ; 
the  continuation  of  the  battle,  with  the  one  losing  her  main 
topmast ;  the  roaring  of  the  sea,  and  the  smoking  of  the  guns, 
the  view  of  the  boats  and  wounded  men  on  the  surface  of  the 
water,  will  give  to  any  person  who  has  not  seen  one,  a  perfect 
idea  of  a  sea  fight ;  while  the  conclusion  of  it,  together  with  the 
ingenuity  of  the  performance,  must  be  highly  pleasing  to  every 
American ;  with  other  scenery  equally  entertaining.  To  con 
clude  with  the  celebrated  Dancing  Master.  To  begin  pre 
cisely  at  half  past  six.  Tickets  to  be  had  of  Mr.  North,  next 
door  to  the  Theater.  N.  B.  Box,  three  quarters  of  a  dollar  ; 
pit,  half  a  dollar  ;  gallery,  one  quarter  of  a  dollar/' 

If  this  failed  to  tempt  the  gentleman  from  Tennessee,  he 
could  hardly  resist  the  attractions  of  the  "  Pantheon,  and 
Rickett's  Amphitheater/'  which  announced  exercises  in 
"  Horsemanship  :"  "  This  evening,  The  Euins  of  Troy,  or 
the  World  turned  upside  down.  A  song  by  Miss  Sully. 
Between  the  intervals  of  the  stage,  Mr.  Eicketts  will  exhibit 
various  feats  in  the  equestrian  exercises.  Preceding  the 
Poney  Races  a  dance  called  the  Merry  Jockies  or  Sports  of 
New  Market.  Poney  races  with  real  ponies.  The  whole  to 
conclude  with  the  grand  pantomime  of  the  Death  of  Captain 
Cook.  Boxes  One  dollar.  Pit  half  a  dollar.  Doors  open  at 
5,  and  performance  to  commence  at  a  quarter  after  six 
o'clock.  Days  of  performance  this  week  to  be  Tuesday, 
Thursday  and  Saturday." 

Then  there  were  "  Readings  and  Recitations  at  College 
Hall,  Moral,  Critical  and  Entertaining."  "  Mr.  Fennell  re 
spectfully  informs  the  Public  that  this  Evening,  Jan.  3rd  at 


226  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1798. 

7  o'clock,  will  be  delivered — 1st  part,  prefatory  observations , 
including  selections  frorn  Dr.  Young,  on  Time,  Man,  Life. 
Part  2d.  The  effects  of  Sorrow,  exemplified  in  the  distresses 
of  a  daughter  ;  McKenzie.  The  Prisoner  ;  Sterne.  Maria 
1st  and  2d  part,  Sterne.  The  Beggar's  Petition,  Dr.  Perci- 
val.  Part  3d.  The  effects  of  virtue  as  exemplified  in  the 
character  of  a  good  man  ;  Young — The  Country  Clergy 
man  ;  Goldsmith ;  Domestic  Happiness,  Thomson ;  with 
occasional  remarks  on  the  authors.  "  Tickets  (half  a  dollar 
each)  to  be  had  of  Mr.  Poulson,  jun.  at  the  Library — at 
Mr.  McElwee's  Looking  glass  store,  No.  70  South  Fourth 
Street,  and  at  Mr.  Carey's,  bookseller,  Market  Street.  Sub 
scriptions  are  received  by  Mr.  Zachariah  Poulson,  Jun.  at  the 
Library,  where  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  who  may  be  inclined 
to  honor  the  undertaking  with  their  patronage,  are  respect 
fully  requested  to  send  their  names  and  receive  their  tickets." 

And  as  if  all  this  were  not  enough,  there  was  to  have 
been  a  concert,  but — "  The  subscribers  to  the  Ladies'  Con 
cert  are  respectfully  informed  that  the  Concert  is  postponed 
till  Tomorrow  fortnight,  Mrs.  Grattan  being  so  indisposed 
with  a  cold  as  to  render  it  impossible  for  her  to  perform." 

From  pleasures  such  as  these,  and  all  the  other  delights 
of  metropolitan  life,  Jackson  turned  away,  longing  to  be  em 
ploying  his  time  to  better  advantage  in  wild  Tennessee,  and 
believing,  as  he  said,  that  his  friend  and  neighbor,  Daniel 
Smith,*  could  serve  the  State  better  in  the  Senate  than  he 
could.  Early  in  the  summer  of  1798,  he  was  at  home  again, 
a  private  citizen,  and  intending  to  remain  such. 

*  Eaton's  Life  of  Jackson,  page  19. 


1798.]       JUDGE     OF     THE     SUPREME     COURT.  227 

CHAPTER     XX. 

JUDGE  OF  THE  SUPREME  COURT. 

BUT  it  seems  he  could  not  yet  be  spared  from  public  life. 
Soon  after  his  return  to  Tennessee,  he  was  elected  by  the 
Legislature  to  a  seat  on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  State  ;  a  post  which  he  said  he  accepted  in  obedience  to 
his  favorite  maxim,  that  the  citizen  of  a  free  commonwealth 
should  never  seek  and  never  decline  public  duty.  The  office 
assigned  him  was  next  in  consideration,  as  to  emolument,  to 
that  of  governor  ;  the  governor's  salary  being  seven  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  a  year,  and  the  judge's  six  hundred.  He  re 
tained  the  judgeship  for  six  years,  holding  courts  in  due  suc 
cession  at  Jonesboro,  Knoxville,  Nashville,  and  at  places  of 
less  importance ;  dispensing  the  best  justice  he  was  mas 
ter  of. 

Not  a  decision  of  Judge  Jackson's  is  on  record.  The  re 
corded  decisions  of  the  court  over  which  he  presided  began 
with  those  of  Judge  Overton,  Jackson's  successor.  To  the 
present  bar  of  Tennessee,  therefore,  it  is  as  though  no  Judge 
Jackson  ever  sat  on  the  bench  ;  for  he  is  never  quoted,  nor 
referred  to  as  authority.  Tradition  reports  that  he  main 
tained  the  dignity  and  authority  of  the  bench,  while  he  was 
on  the  bench  ;  and  that  his  decisions  were  short,  untechnical, 
unlearned,  sometimes  ungrammatical,  and  generally  right. 
Integrity  is  seven  tenths  of  a  qualification  for  any  trust. 
When  not  blinded  by  passion,  by  prejudice,  or  by  gratitude, 
Judge  Jackson's  sense  of  right  was  strong  and  clear.  More 
over,  the  cases  that  came  before  the  courts  of  Tennessee  at 
that  day  were  usually  such  as  any  fair-minded  man  was  com 
petent  to  decide  correctly.  Jackson,  I  believe,  wore  a  gown 
while  in  court,  as  did  also  the  lawyers  of  that  period,  even  in 
far-off  Tennessee.  This  I  infer  from  an  entry  in  the  old 
records  of  Davidson  Academy,  which  orders  the  students  to 


230  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1708. 

was  Governor  of  the  State,  and  the  other  its  supreme  judge, 
must  be  pronounced  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  of  "  dif 
ficulties." 

John  Sevier  was  a  man  after  a  pioneer's  own  heart.  Past 
fifty  at  the  time  of  which  we  are  writing,  he  was  still  the 
handsomest  man  in  Tennessee  ;*  of  erect,  military  bearing  ; 
a  man  of  the  Hunting  Shirt ;  easy,  affable,  generous,  and 
talkative  ;  fond  of  popularity,  and  an  adept  in  those  arts  by 
which  it  is  won  ;  a  Prince  of  the  Backwoods  !  For  twenty 
years  he  was  the  fighting  man  of  Tennessee,  the  hope  and 
trust  of  beleaguered  emigrants,  and  the  terror  of  the  maraud 
ing  savage.  He  fought  in  thirty-five  battles,  and  was  never 
wounded  and  never  defeated.  Mr.  Ramsey  tells  us  that  "  the 
secret  of  his  success  was  the  impetuosity  and  vigor  of  his 
charge."  "  Himself,"  adds  the  annalist,  "  an  accomplished 
horseman,  a  graceful  rider,  passionately  fond  of  a  spirited 
charger,  always  well  mounted  at  the  head  of  his  dragoons,  he 
was  at  once  in  the  midst  of  the  fight.  His  rapid  movements, 
always  unexpected  and  sudden,  disconcerted  the  enemy,  and 
at  the  first  onset  decided  the  victory.  He  was  the  first  to  in 
troduce  the  Indian  war-whoop  in  his  battles  with  the  savages, 
the  tories,  and  the  British.  More  harmless  than  the  leaden 
missiles,  it  was  not  less  efficient,  and  was  always  the  precursor 
and  attendant  of  victory.  The  prisoners  at  King's  Mountain 
said,  '  We  could  stand  your  fighting,  but  your  cursed  hallo 
ing  confused  us  ;  we  thought  the  mountains  had  regiments 
instead  of  companies/  Sevier's  enthusiasm  was  contagious  ; 
he  imparted  it  to  his  men.  He  was  the  idol  of  the  soldiery, 
and  his  orders  were  obeyed  cheerfully,  and  executed  with  pre 
cision.  In  a  military  service  of  twenty  years,  one  instance  is 
not  known  of  insubordination  on  the  part  of  the  soldiers,  or 
of  discipline  by  the  commander." 

When  the  fighting  times  were  over,  and  Tennessee  be 
came  a  State,  Sevier  was  elected  the  first  governor,  and  he 

*  MSS.  Notes  of  Colonel  A.  W.  Putnam.     Colonel  Putnam  (great  grand 
son  of  "  Old  Put;')  is  a  son-in-law  of  one  of  Governor  Sevier's  sons. 


1798.]       JUDGE     OF     THE     SUPREME     COURT. 

was  reflected  every  two  years  until  he  had  served  three  terms. 
Then  he  was  out  of  office  for  two  years,  because,  by  the  con 
stitution  of  the  State,  no  man  could  serve  as  governor  for 
more  than  three  successive  terms.  But  as  soon  as  he  was 
eligible  again,  he  was  again  elected,  and  served  for  a  second 
period  of  six  years,  at  the  end  of  which  he  was  transferred  to 
Congress. 

With  this  man,  so  entrenched  in  popular  esteem,  Judge 
Jackson  was  at  deadly  feud.  The  remote  cause  of  the  dif 
ference,  was,  perhaps,  their  similarity  of  position,  both  being 
men  of  a  popular  cast,  and  both  having  a  number  of  friends 
zealous  for  their  honor  and  advancement.  Perhaps  the  veteran 
Sevier  did  not  relish  the  rapid  rise  to  popularity  and  high  of 
fice  of  so  young  a  man  as  Jackson.  Perhaps,  at  that  time, 
as  later  in  his  life,  Jackson  was  too  quick  to  believe  evil  of 
one  who  stood  to  him  in  the  relation  of  competitor  and  rival ; 
a  fault  of  human  nature. 

But  the  immediate  occasion  of  the  rupture  was  this :  on 
his  way  to  Philadelphia  in  the  fall  of  1796,  Jackson  fell  in 
with  a  young  traveler,  who  told  him  that  there  was  a  com 
pany  of  land  speculators  in  Tennessee,  who  were  forging 
North  Carolina  land-warrants,  and  selling,  on  various  other 
pretexts,  Tennessee  lands  to  which  they  had  no  right.  Jack 
son,  always  strenuous  for  fair  dealing  and  fair  play,  thought 
proper  to  write  to  the  Governor  of  North  Carolina,  giving 
him  an  account  of  the  young  man's  statement ;  and  the  gov 
ernor  laid  the  letter  before  the  Legislature.  An  investigation 
ensued.  It  was  found  that  the  information  was  not  without 
foundation,  and  it  led  to  measures  which  interfered  with  land 
speculation  in  Tennessee,  threw  some  doubt  on  all  land  titles, 
and  caused  large  numbers  of  Tenneeseeans  to  look  upon 
Jackson  as  a  roan  who  had  done  an  officious  and  injurious 
action.  The  affair  made  a  great  clamor  at  the  time.  One 
man,  Stockley  Donelson,  a  connection  of  Jackson's  by  mar 
riage,  was  indicted  for  conspiracy  and  fraud,  and  the  torn 
remains  of  the  indictment  are  still  preserved  in  the  collection 
of  the  president  of  the  Tennessee  Historical  Society.  Among 


2oO  LIFE     OF     A  N  D  II  E  W     JACKSON.  [1798. 

was  Governor  of  the  State,  and  the  other  its  supreme  judge, 
must  be  pronounced  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  of  "dif 
ficulties." 

John  Sevier  was  a  man  after  a  pioneer's  own  heart.  Past 
fifty  at  the  time  of  which  we  are  writing,  he  was  still  the 
handsomest  man  in  Tennessee  ;*  of  erect,  military  bearing  ; 
a  man  of  the  Hunting  Shirt ;  easy,  affable,  generous,  and 
talkative  ;  fond  of  popularity,  and  an  adept  in  those  arts  by 
which  it  is  won  ;  a  Prince  of  the  Backwoods  !  For  twenty 
years  he  was  the  fighting  man  of  Tennessee,  the  hope  and 
trust  of  beleaguered  emigrants,  and  the  terror  of  the  maraud 
ing  savage.  He  fought  in  thirty-five  battles,  and  was  never 
wounded  and  never  defeated.  Mr.  Kamsey  tells  us  that  "  the 
secret  of  his  success  was  the  impetuosity  and  vigor  of  his 
charge."  "Himself,"  adds  the  annalist,  "an  accomplished 
horseman,  a  graceful  rider,  passionately  fond  of  a  spirited 
charger,  always  well  mounted  at  the  head  of  his  dragoons,  he 
was  at  once  in  the  midst  of  the  fight.  His  rapid  movements, 
always  unexpected  and  sudden,  disconcerted  the  enemy,  and 
at  the  first  onset  decided  the  victory.  He  was  the  first  to  in 
troduce  the  Indian  war-whoop  in  his  battles  with  the  savages, 
the  tories,  and  the  British.  More  harmless  than  the  leaden 
missiles,  it  was  not  less  efficient,  and  was  always  the  precursor 
and  attendant  of  victory.  The  prisoners  at  King's  Mountain 
said,  '  We  could  stand  your  fighting,  but  your  cursed  hallo 
ing  confused  us  ;  we  thought  the  mountains  had  regiments 
instead  of  companies/  Sevier's  enthusiasm  was  contagious  ; 
he  imparted  it  to  his  men.  He  was  the  idol  of  the  soldiery, 
and  his  orders  were  obeyed  cheerfully,  and  executed  with  pre 
cision.  In  a  military  service  of  twenty  years,  one  instance  is 
not  known  of  insubordination  on  the  part  of  the  soldiers,  or 
of  discipline  by  the  commander." 

When  the  fighting  times  were  over,  and  Tennessee  be 
came  a  State,  Sevier  was  elected  the  first  governor,  and  he 

*  MSS.  Notes  of  Colonel  A.  W.  Putnam.     Colonel  Putnam  (great  grand 
son  of  "  Old  Put:')  is  a  son-in-law  of  one  of  Governor  Sevier's  sons. 


1708.1       JUDGE     OF     THE     SUPREME     COURT.        231 


was  reflected  every  two  years  until  he  had  served  three  terms. 
Then  he  was  out  of  office  for  two  years,  because,  by  the  con 
stitution  of  the  State,  no  man  could  serve  as  governor  for 
more  than  three  successive  terms.  But  as  soon  as  he  was 
eligible  again,  he  was  again  elected,  and  served  for  a  second 
period  of  six  years,  at  the  end  of  which  he  was  transferred  to 
Congress. 

With  this  man,  so  entrenched  in  popular  esteem,  Judge 
Jackson  was  at  deadly  feud.  The  remote  cause  of  the  dif 
ference,  was,  perhaps,  their  similarity  of  position,  both  being 
men  of  a  popular  cast,  and  both  having  a  number  of  friends 
zealous  for  their  honor  and  advancement.  Perhaps  the  veteran 
Sevier  did  not  relish  the  rapid  rise  to  popularity  and  high  of 
fice  of  so  young  a  man  as  Jackson.  Perhaps,  at  that  time, 
as  later  in  his  life,  Jackson  was  too  quick  to  believe  evil  oi 
one  who  stood  to  him  in  the  relation  of  competitor  and  rival ; 
a  fault  of  human  nature. 

But  the  immediate  occasion  of  the  rupture  was  this :  on 
his  way  to  Philadelphia  in  the  fall  of  1796,  Jackson  fell  in 
with  a  young  traveler,  who  told  him  that  there  was  a  com 
pany  of  land  speculators  in  Tennessee,  who  were  forging 
North  Carolina  land- warrants,  and  selling,  on  various  other 
pretexts,  Tennessee  lands  to  which  they  had  no  right.  Jack 
son,  always  strenuous  for  fair  dealing  and  fair  play,  thought 
proper,  to  write  to  the  Governor  of  North  Carolina,  giving 
him  an  account  of  the  young  man's  statement ;  and  the  gov 
ernor  laid  the  letter  before  the  Legislature.  An  investigation 
ensued.  It  was  found  that  the  information  was  not  without 
foundation,  and  it  led  to  measures  which  interfered  with  land 
speculation  in  Tennessee,  threw  some  doubt  on  all  land  titles, 
and  caused  large  numbers  of  Tenneeseeans  to  look  upon 
Jackson  as  a  man  who  had  done  an  officious  and  injurious 
action.  The  affair  made  a  great  clamor  at  the  time.  One 
man,  Stockley  Donelson,  a  connection  of  Jackson's  by  mar 
riage,  was  indicted  for  conspiracy  and  fraud,  and  the  torn 
remains  of  the  indictment  are  still  preserved  in  the  collection 
of  the  president  of  the  Tennessee  Historical  Society.  Among 


232  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1801. 

those  who  had  unsuspectingly  bought  and  sold  the  lands  said 
to  have  been  fraudulently  obtained,  was  no  less  a  personage 
than  John  Sevier,  Governor  of  the  State.  And  among  the 
quarrels  that  grew  out  of  the  business,  was  a  most  fierce  one 
between  him  and  the  innocent  cause  of  all  the  trouble,  Judge 
Jackson. 

First,  there  was  a  coolness  between  the  two  men ;  then  al 
tercations  ;  then  total  estrangement ;  then  loud,  recriminating 
talk  on  both  sides,  reported  to  both  ;  then  various  personal 
encounters,  of  which  I  heard  in  Tennessee  so  many  different 
accounts,  that  I  was  convinced  no  one  knew  anything  about 
them.  At  last,  in  the  year  1801,  Jackson  gained  an  advan 
tage  over  Sevier  which  was  peculiarly  calculated  to  wound, 
disgust,  and  exasperate  the  impetuous  old  soldier,  victor  in  so 
many  battles. 

Sevier  was  then  out  of  office.  The  major  generalship  of 
militia  was  vacant,  and  the  two  belligerents  were  candidates 
for  the  post,  which  at  that  time  was  keenly  coveted  by  the 
very  first  men  in  the  State.  Nor  was  it  then  merely  an  affair 
of  title,  regimentals,  and  showy  gallopings  on  the  days  of 
general  muster.  There  were  then  Indians  to  be  kept  in  awe, 
as  well  as  constant  rumors  and  threatenings  of  war  with 
France  or  England.  The  office  of  Major  General  was  in  the 
gift  of  the  field  officers,  who  were  empowered  by  the  consti 
tution  to  select  their  chief.  The  canvassings  and  general  agi 
tation  which  preceded  the  election  on  this  occasion  may  be 
imagined.  The  day  came.  The  election  was  held.  There 
was  a  tie,  an  equal  number  of  votes  being  cast  for  Jackson 
and  Sevier.  In  such  a  conjuncture,  the  Governor  of  the 
State,  being,  from  his  office,  commander-in-chief  of  the  mili 
tia,  had  a  casting  vote.  Governor  Roane  gave  his  vote  for 
Jackson,  who  thus  became  the  Major  General,  to  the  discom 
fiture  of  the  other  competitor. 

A  year  or  two  later,  Sevier  was  a  candidate  for  the  govern 
orship  again,  and  a  campaign  ensued  which  revived  and  in 
flamed  all  the  old  animosities.  East  Tennessee  was  full  of 
Sevier' s  partisans,  who,  in  the  course  of  the  canvass,  imbibed 


1803.]       JUDGE     OF     THE     SUPREME     COURT.  233 

the  antipathy  of  their  chief  to  the  favorite  of  West  Ten- 
nesee. 

In  the  fall  of  1803,  while  Jackson  was  on  his  way  from 
Nashville  to  Jonesboro,  where  he  was  about  to  hold  a  court, 
he  was  informed  by  a  friend,  who  met  him  on  the  road,  that 
a  combination  had  been  formed  against  him,  and  that  on  his 
arrival  at  Jonesboro  he  might  expect  to  be  mobbed.  He  was 
sick,  at  the  time,  of  an  intermittent  fever,  which  had  so 
reduced  his  strength  that  he  was  scarcely  able  to  sit  on  his 
horse.  But,  on  hearing  this  intelligence,  he  sparred  forward, 
and  reached  the  town  ;  but  so  exhausted  that  he  could  not 
dismount  without  help.  Burning  with  fever,  he  lay  down 
upon  a  bed  in  the  tavern.  A  few  minutes  after,  a  friend 
came  in  and  said  that  Colonel  Harrison  and  a  "regiment  of 
men"  were  in  front  of  the  tavern,  who  had  assembled  for  the 
purpose  of  tarring  and  feathering  him.  His  friend  advised 
him  to  lock  his  door.  Jackson  rose  suddenly,  threw  his  door 
wide  open,  and  said,  with  that  peculiar  emphasis  which  won 
him  so  many  battles  without  fighting, 

"  Give  my  compliments  to  Colonel  Harrison,  and  tell  him 
my  door  is  open  to  receive  him  and  his  regiment  whenever 
they  choose  to  wait  upon  me,  and  that  I  hope  the  colonel's 
chivalry  will  induce  him  to  lead  his  men,  not  follow  them/'* 

The  regiment,  either  because  they  were  ashamed  to  harm 
a  sick  man,  or  afraid  to  attack  a  desperate  one,  thought  bet 
ter  of  their  purpose,  and  gradually  dispersed.  Judge  Jackson 
recovered  from  his  fever,  held  his  court  as  usual,  and  heard 
nothing  further  of  any  hostile  designs  at  Jonesboro. 

His  next  court  was  at  Knoxville,  the  capital  of  the  State, 
the  residence  of  Governor  Sevier,  where  the  Legislature  was  in 
session.  The  presence  of  the  Legislature,  and  the  convening 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  had  filled  the  town  with  people.  The 
land  fraud  excitement  was  at  its  height,  as  the  subject  was 
about  to  come  before  the  Legislature.  Judge  Jackson  arrived 
in  due  time,  and  opened  his  court  without  molestation  ;  but 

*  Kendall,  page  106. 


234  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACK  SOX.  [1803. 

as  he  was  leaving  the  court  house  at  the  end  of  the  first  day's 
session,  he  found  a  great  crowd  assembled  in  the  square  before 
the  door,  in  the  midst  of  which  he  observed  his  enemy,  the 
governor,  sword  in  hand,  haranguing  the  excited  multitude. 
The  moment  Jackson  appeared  upon  the  scene,  Sevier  turned 
upon  him,  and  poured  upon  him  a  volley  of  vituperation  ;  to 
which  Jackson  promptly  responded.  A  wild  altercation 
ensued,  in  the  course  of  which,  it  is  said,  Sevier  frequently 
defied  Jackson  to  mortal  combat.  They  separated  at  length, 
and  Jackson  sent  the  governor  a  challenge,  which  was 
accepted ;  but  as  they  could  not  agree  as  to  the  time  and 
place  of  meeting,  the  negotiation  ended  by  Jackson  suddenly 
posting  Sevier  as  a  coward — the  absurd  act  of  an  angry  man. 

In  those  mad,  fighting  times  there  was  in  vogue,  besides 
the  duel,  a  kind  of  informal  combat,  which  was  res  orted  to 
when  the  details  of  a  duel  could  not  be  arranged.  A  man 
might  refuse  the  "  satisfaction"  of  a  duel,  and  yet  hold  him 
self  bound  to  meet  his  antagonist  at  a  certain  time  and  place, 
either  alone  or  accompanied,  and  "have  it  out"  with  him 
in  a  rough-and-tumble  fight.  So,  on  this  occasion,  there  was 
an  "  understanding"  that  the  belligerents  were  to  meet  at  a 
designated  point  just  beyond  the  borders  of  the  State.  Jack 
son  was  there  at  the  appointed  time,  accompanied  by  one 
friend.  The  governor,  accidentally  detained,  did  not  arrive 
in  time.  Jackson  waited  near  the  spot  for  two  days  ;  but 
no  irate  governor  appearing  above  the  horizon,  he  deter 
mined  to  return  to  Knoxville  and  compel  Sevier  to  a  hostile 
interview. 

He  had  not  gone  a  mile  toward  the  capital  before  he 
descried  Governor  Sevier  approaching  on  horseback,  accom 
panied  by  mounted  men.  Reining  in  his  steed,  he  sent  his 
friend  forward  to  convey  to  Sevier  a  letter  which  he  had  pre 
pared  during  the  two  days  of  waiting  ;  in  which  he  recounted 
their  differences  from  the  beginning,  stating  wherein  he  con 
ceived  himself  to  have  been  injured.  Sevier  declined  to  receive 
the  letter.  On  learning  this,  Jackson  appeared  to  lose  all 
patience,  and  resolved  to  end  the  matter  then  and  there,  cost 


1798.]       JUDGE      OF      THE      SUPREME      COURT.  235 

what  it  might.  He  rode  slowly  toward  the  governor's  party 
until  he  was  within  a  hundred  yards  of  them.  Then,  level 
ing  his  cane,  as  knights  of  old  were  wont  to  level  their  lances, 
he  struck  spurs  into  his  horse,  and  galloped  furiously  at  the 
governor.  Sevier,  astounded  at  this  tremendous  apparition, 
and  intending,  if  he  fought  at  all,  to  fight  fairly  and  on  terra 
firma,  dismounted  ;  but,  in  so  doing,  stepped  upon  the  scab 
bard  of  his  sword,  and  fell  prostrate  under  his  horse.  Jack 
son,  seeing  his  enemy  thus  vanish  from  his  sight,  reined  in 
his  own  fiery  steed,  and  gave  time  for  the  governor's  friends 
to  get  between  them  and  prevent  a  conflict.  Through  the 
efforts  of  some  gentlemen  in  Sevier's  party  who  were  friends 
of  both  the  belligerents,  the  affair  was  patched  up  upon  the 
spot,  and  the  whole  party  rode  toward  Knoxville  together  in 
amity.  Nor  was  there  any  renewal  of  the  combat.  The 
anger  of  the  antagonists  and  their  friends  found  vent  in  news 
paper  statements,  and  after  a  brief  paper  war,  exhausted 
itself* 

About  this  time,  too,  Jackson  quarreled  with  his  old 
friend,  Judge  McNairy,  with  whom  he  had  emigrated  to 
Tennessee,  an  affair  only  noticeable  from  the  nature  of  the 
provocation.  McNairy  had  caused  the  removal  of  General 
Robertson  from  the  Chickasaw  agency,  which  lost  their 
friend  Searcy  his  office  of  clerk  of  the  agency.  Jackson 
was  exceedingly  indignant  at  this,  and  expressed  his  indig 
nation  in  terms  which  made  a  breach  between  McNairy  and 
himself  that  was  never  entirely  healed. 


*  "  The  principals,"  writes  Colonel  A.  W.  Putnam,  "although  never  recon 
ciled  at  any  personal  meeting  or  correspondence,  ceased  to  talk  of  the  difficulty, 
and,  we  think,  ceased  to  cherish  enmity  towards  each  other.  In  some  of  Gov 
ernor  Sevier's  children  the  feeling  of  bitterness  towards  General  Jackson  was 
long  perpetuated,  and  perhaps  in  the  bosom  of  no  one  so  intense  as  in  that  of 
Colonel  George  W.  Sevier  (my  father-in-law) ;  but  even  he  visited  the  Hermitage, 
and  I  think  dined  there  with  the  General,  after  his  retirement  from  the  presi 
dency.  They  had  each  become  members  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  and  tho 
second  son  of  Colonel  Sevier  had  married  Sarah  Knox,  a  niece  of  Mrs.  Jackson 
(and  who  had  been  partly  educated  or  raised  in  the  family,  at  the  Hermitage.)" 


236  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1803, 

During  one  of  the  latter  years  of  his  judgeship,  a  new 
county  of  Tennessee,  in  the  Cumberland  valley,  was  named 
JACKSON.  That  name  now  occurs  on  the  map  of  the  United 
States  one  hundred  and  ninety-one  times.  Fourteen  States 
of  the  Union  rejoice  in  a  Jackson  county,  and  each  State  has 
an  average  of  half  a  dozen  towns  so  called.  Forty  places  in 
the  United  States  are  named  HICKORY,  not  all  of  which  were 
so  designated  from  the  prevalence  of  the  timber  of  that  name. 
But  Jackson  county,  Tennessee,  was  the  first  of  these  geo 
graphical  honors.  There  is  but  one  name  upon  our  map 
which  occurs  more  frequently  than  that  of  Jackson — WASH 
INGTON — which  may  be  counted  one  hundred  and  ninety-eight 
times.  The  other  popular  favorites  fall  far  below  these  in 
geographical  distinction.  We  have  but  a  hundred  and  thirty- 
six  Franklins,  a  hundred  and  ten  JefFersons,  ninety-one 
Monroes,  seventy-six  Madisons,  sixty-four  Adamses,  forty-two 
Clays,  thirty-four  Lafayettes,  sixteen  Calhouns,  and  fourteen 
Websters.  Geography,  without  being  one  of  the  exact 
sciences,  seems  to  have  reflected  the  popular  judgment  pretty 
accurately  in  this  distribution  ;  which,  republican  geography, 
of  course,  was  bound  to  do. 

After  the  explosion  of  his  feud  with  Governor  Sevier, 
Judge  Jackson,  never  pleased  with  his  office,  nor  feeling  him 
self  adapted  to  it,  became  more  dissatisfied  than  ever,  and 
longed  to  exchange  the  bench  for  a  place  demanding  less  con 
finement,  and  more  action.  In  1803,  the  purchase  of  Louisiana 
was  completed,  and  Jackson  had  an  expectation  of  receiving 
from  President  Jefferson  the  appointment  of  Governor  of 
that  Territory.  A  letter  which  he  wrote  in  the  spring  of 
1804  to  his  friend  George  W.  Campbell,  member  of  Congress 
from  Tennessee,  explains  his  feelings  and  wishes  with  regard 
to  the  office.  To  afford  the  reader  an  opportunity  of  judging 
of  Judge  Jackson's  orthography,  I  leave  this  letter  uncor- 
rected.  It  was  written  at  the  city  of  Washington,  April 
28,  1804.  For  what  purpose  the  writer  was  there  at  that 
time  will  appear  hereafter. 


1804.]       JUDGE     OF      THE      SUPREME      COURT.        237 


ANDREW    JACKSON    TO    GEORGE    W.    CAMPBELL. 

"Dear  Sir,  I  reached  this  place  on  last  evening — I  have  been  detained 
on  my  journey  since  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  you,  four  days  by  high 
waters  and  an  inflamation  in  my  leg — which  has  in  a  great  measure  sub 
sided  but  I  am  not  free  from  pain. 

The  President  is  at  Montcello,  he  has  lost  his  daughter  Mrs.  Epps — 
Not  a  hint  who  is  to  be  appointed  to  the  government  of  New  Orleans — 
I  did  not  call  to  see  the  President — my  reasons  I  will  I  will  concisely  state 
and  leave  you  to  Judge  whether  they  are,  or  not  founded  upon  Just  prem 
ises — It  was  not  known  to  me  wither  he  had  made  the  appointment,  in  case 
I  had  waited  upon  him  and  the  office  of  Governor  of  New  Orleans  not 
filled  it  would  have  been  perhaps  construed  as  the  call  of  a  courteor — and 
of  all  chacters  on  earth  my  feelings  despise  a  man  capable  of  cringing  to 
power  for  a  benefit  or  office — and  such  characters  that  are  capable  of  bend 
ing  for  the  sake  of  an  office  is  badly  calculated  for  a  representative  system, 
when  merit  alone  should  lead  to  preferment — these  being  my  sensations — 
and  believing  that  a  call  upon  him  under  present  existing  circumstances 
might  be  construed  as  the  act  of  a  courteor,  I  traviled  on  enjoying  my 
own  feelings — And  let  me  declare  to  you  that  before  I  would  violate  my 
own  ideas  of  propriety,  I  would  yeald  up  any  office  in  the  government  was 
I  in  possession  of  the  most  honorable  and  lucrative — Who  the  choice  is  to 
fall  upon  is  not  known  here  unless  to  the  secretary  of  State — but  I  have 
reason  to  conclude  that  Mr.  Claibourn  will  not  fill  that  office,  I  have  also 
reason  to  believe  that  if  a  suitable  character  can  be  found  who  is  master 
of  the  French  Language  that  he  will  be  prefered — I  think  that,  a  proper 
qualification  for  the  Governor  of  that  country  to  possess,  provided  it  is 
accompanied  with  other  necessary  ones — I  never  had  any  sanguine  expec 
tations  of  filling  the  office. — If  I  should  it  will  be  more  than  I  expect — But 
permit  me  here  again  to  repeat,  that  the  friendly  attention  of  my  friends, 
and  those  particularly  that  I  am  confident  acted  from  motives  of  pure  friend 
ship  towards  me,  (among  whom  I  rank  you,)  never  shall  be  forgotten, 
gatitude  is  always  the  concomitant  of  a  bosom  susceptable  of  true  friend 
ship,  and  if  1  know  myself,  my  countenance  never  says,  to  a  man  that  I 
am  his  friend  but  my  heart  beats  in  unison  with  it.  Permit  me  here  with 
that  candor  that  you  will  always  find  me  to  possess,  to  state  that  I  am  truly 
gratified  to  find  that  you  constituents  alone  are  not  the  only  part  of  the 
union  that  think  highly  of  your  Legislative  conduct,  it  extends  as  far  as 
your  speeches  have  been  read,  and  you  are  known  as  a  member  of  the  rep 
resentative  branch — May  you  continue  to  grow  in  popularity  on  the  basis 
of  your  own  merit — And  as  long  as  you  are  guarded  by  your  own  Judg't 
this  will  continue  to  be  the  case,  this  is  in  my  opinion  the  only  road  to  a 
lasting  popularity,  for  the  moment  a  man  yealds  his  Judgt  to  popular  whim, 

VOL.  L, 16 


238  LIFE    OF    ANDREW   JACKSON.  [1804. 

he  may  be  compared  to  a  ship  without  its  ruder,  in  a  gale — he  is  sure  to  be 
dashed  against  a  rock — accept  my  dear  sir,  my  warmest  wishes  for  your 
welfare.  ANDREW  JACKSON.* 

July  the  24th,  1804,  Jackson's  resignation  of  his  judgeship 
was  accepted  by  the  Legislature,  and  he  found  himself,  to  his 
unfeigned  relief,  once  more  in  private  life,  free  to  devote  him 
self  to  his  own  affairs,  which  urgently  called  for  his  attention. 
For  some  years  after  his  retirement  from  the  bench,  he  was 
sometimes  called,  and  called  himself,  Judge  Jackson.  So,  at 
least,  I  conclude  from  a  pleasant  little  narrative  received  from 
a  venerable  and  most  estimable  lady  of  Nashville,  which  shall 
conclude  and  alleviate  this  warlike  chapter. 

"  It  was  in  1808,"  began  Mrs.  K.,  "  when  I  was  a  girl  of 
sixteen,  that  I  first  saw  General  Jackson.  It  was  in  East 
Tennessee,  at  the  house  of  Captain  Lyon,  whose  family  myself 
and  another  young  lady  were  visiting.  We  were  sitting  at 
work  one  afternoon,  when  a  servant,  who  was  lounging  at  the 
window,  exclaimed,  '  Oh,  see  what  a  fine,  elegant  gentleman 
is  coming  up  the  road  !'  We  girls  ran  to  the  window,  of 
course,  and  there,  indeed,  was  a  fine  gentleman,  mounted  on 
a  beautiful  horse,  an  upright,  striking  figure,  high  jack-boots 
coming  up  over  the  knee,  holsters,  and  every  thing  handsome 
and  complete.  He  stopped  before  the  door,  and  said  to  a 
negro  whom  he  saw  there  : 

"  '  Old  man,  does  Captain  Lyon  live  here  ?' 

"  The  old  man  gave  the  desired  information. 

"  '  Is  he  at  home  ?'  inquired  the  stranger. 

"  He  was  not  at  home. 

"  '  Do  you  expect  him  home  to-night  ?' 

"  Yes  ;  he  was  expected  every  moment.  The  old  man  was 
there  waiting  to  take  his  horse. 

" i  Well,  my  good  boy/  continued  the  stranger,  ( I  have 
come  to  see  Captain  Lyon  ;  and,  as  he  is  coming  home  to 
night,  I  will  alight  and  walk  in/ 

The  old  negro,  all  assiduity  and  deference,  led  the  horse 


*0* 

tt  n 


From  MSS.  left  by  Hon.  George  W.  Campbell,  in  possession  of  his  family. 


1804.]      JUDGE     OF     THE     SUPREME     COURT.        239 

to  the  stable,  and  the  stranger  entered  the  house,  where  we 
girls  were  sitting  as  demurely  as  though  we  had  not  been 
peeping  and  listening.  We  all  rose  as  he  entered  the  room. 
He  bowed  and  smiled,  as  he  said  : 

"  '  Excuse  my  intruding  upon  you,  ladies,  in  the  absence 
of  Captain  Lyon.  I  am  Judge  Jackson.  I  have  business 
with  Captain  Lyon,  and  am  here  by  his  invitation.  I  hope  I 
do  not  incommode  you/ 

"  We  were  all  captivated  by  this  polite  speech,  and  the 
agreeable  manner  in  which  it  was  spoken.  Soon  after,  Captain 
Lyon  entered,  accompanied  by  two  officers  of  the  army,  one  of 
whom  was  Doctor  Bronaugh.  We  had  a  delightful  evening. 
I  remember  Jackson  was  full  of  anecdote,  and  told  us  a  great 
deal  about  the  early  days  of  Tennessee.  Dr.  Bronaugh,  as  it 
happened,  sat  next  to  me,  and  paid  me  somewhat  marked  at 
tentions.  The  party  broke  up  the  next  morning,  and  we  saw 
Judge  Jackson  ride  away  on  his  fine  horse,  and  all  agreed 
that  a  finer  looking  man  or  a  better  horseman  there  was  not 
in  Tennessee.  Years  passed  before  I  saw  him  again.  I  was  a 
married  woman,  though  he  knew  it  not.  He  recognized  me 
in  a  moment,  and  so  well  did  he  remember  the  incidents  of 
this  evening,  that  the  first  salutations  were  no  sooner  over, 
than  he  said,  laughing, 

"  i  Well,  Miss ,  and  how  is  that  handsome  young  of 
ficer  who  was  so  attentive  to  you  at  Captain  Lyon's  ?' 

" c  General/  said  I,  i  permit  me  to  present  to  you  my 
husband,  Captain  K/ 

"  Not  another  word  was  said  about  the  handsome  young 
officer/' 


240  LIFE     OF      ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1804. 

CHAPTER    XXI. 

MAN     OF     BUSINESS. 

THE  aristocracy  of  a  country  are  they  who  wield  its 
resources.  In  the  United  States,  therefore,  the  business  man 
is  lord. 

Was  it  for  this  reason  that  democratic  gentlemen,  who 
have  written  of  General  Jackson,  have  so  sedulously  slurred 
over  the  fact  that,  during  several  years  in  the  prime  of  his 
life,  he  kept  a  store  ?  The  silence  on  this  subject  of  all  those 
who  could  have  told  us  something  about  it  from  personal 
knowledge,  has  made  it  a  task  of  extreme  difficulty  to  obtain 
the  desired  information.  The  following  account  of  his  bus 
iness  career,  compiled  from  many  sources,  personal,  manu 
script  and  printed,  may  not  be  entirely  correct  in  minor 
particulars,  but  is  so,  I  believe,  in  essential  ones : — 

Some  trade  was  carried  on  between  the  Cumberland  set 
tlements  and  the  Atlantic  provinces  almost  from  the  first. 
Salt  was  brought,  on  pack  horses,  all  the  way  from  Eich- 
mond,  in  Virginia,  and  from  Augusta  in  Georgia,  and  was 
sold  in  Tennessee  at  ten  dollars  a  bushel.  At  that  day,  we 
are  told,  the  salt  gourd  was  the  treasure  of  every  cabin. 
Iron  also  was  brought,  on  pack  horses,  from  the  East,  and 
sold  at  fabulous  prices  ;  so  that  it  was  used  only  in  the 
repairing  of  plows  and  such  other  farming  utensils  as  could 
not  be  made  wholly  of  wood.  Only  wooden  nails,  latches 
and  hinges  were  known  in  the  settlements  for  many  years. 
The  hunting  shirts  of  skins  or  home-spun  cloth,  moccasins, 
hats  of  home-dressed  fur,  were  generally  worn,  and  rendered 
dry  goods  brought  from  the  East  unnecessary.  But  when 
Jackson  came  to  the  Cumberland,  in  1788,  Nashville  was 
already  the  center  of  an  active  trade,  not  only  with  the  eastern 
States,  but  with  Natchez  and  New  Orleans.  "  Ten  horses, 
packed  with  goods  from  Philadelphia,  traveling  by  slow 
stages  through  the  length  of  Virginia,  and  arriving  at  the 


1804.]  MAN     OF     BUSINESS.  241 

Bluff  in  the  fall  of  the  year  1786,  was  a  sight  worth  looking 
at,  and  proves  that  Nashville  was  not  then  a  (  one  horse 
town/  "* 

There  is  some  slight  reason  to  believe  that  Jackson  dabbled 
in  trade  as  soon  as  he  had  been  long  enough  in  his  new  home 
to  get  any  thing  to  trade  upon.  Among  the  collections  of 
the  Tennessee  Historical  Society  may  be  seen  a  note  addressed 
by  J.  C.  Montflorence  to  Andrew  Jackson,  dated  July  23d, 
1790,  which  reads  as  follows  : — "  DEAR  SIR  :  Please  to  ac 
count  with  Captain  Anthony  Hart  for  the  little  venture  of 
Swann  skins  which  you  were  so  obliging  as  to  take  down  to 
the  Natchez  for  me.  And  you  will  oblige  very  much,  dear 
sir/'  etc.,  etc. 

There  are  no  means  of  elucidating  this  writing,  preserved 
by  chance  so  long  while  so  many  things  of  greater  value  have 
been  lost.  We  at  least  learn  from  it  that  when  Jackson 
accompanied  Kachel  Kobards  to  Natchez  in  1791,  he  per 
formed  the  journey  not  for  the  first  time.  If  Mr.  Montflor 
ence,  who  was  also  an  active  lawyer,  sent  his  "  little  venture" 
down  to  Natchez,  it  is  likely  enough  that  Jackson  did  so  too. 
But  his  absorbing  business,  during  the  first  ten  years  of  his 
residence  in  Tennessee,  was  the  practice  of  the  law.  Land 
being  then  almost  a  legal  tender,  he  became,  as  we  have 
before  remarked,  the  owner  of  large  tracts,  which,  rising  in 
value  every  year,  and  rising  rapidly  after  the  Nickajack  expe 
dition,  made  him  comparatively  rich.  Land  which  he  bought 
for  half  a  dollar  an  acre  in  1790  was  worth  five  dollars  an  acre 
in  1798  ;  in  which  year  he  owned,  I  presume,  not  less  than 
fifty  thousand  acres. 

We  have  seen  him  abruptly  resigning  the  honorable  post 
of  Senator  of  the  United  States.  To  be  a  member  of  Con 
gress,  at  that  day,  from  a  State  so  remote  as  Tennessee,  (six 
weeks'  journey  from  Philadelphia)  absorbed  nearly  the  whole 
year  ;  and  this  alone  would  have  rendered  such  a  man  as 
Jackson,  formed  for  activity  and  keen  i ,\  the  pursuit  of  for- 

*  Putnam's  History  of  Middle  Tennessee,  page  174. 


242  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1804. 

tune,  averse  to  filling  the  office.  Nor  was  there  ever  a  man 
less  inclined  than  he  to  pass  the  best  hours  of  every  day  for 
seven  successive  months,  quiescent  in  a  red  morocco  chair, 
playing  Senator.  In  1798,  while  still  holding  his  seat  in  the 
Senate,  he  succeeded  in  selling  to  a  merchant  of  Philadelphia, 
who  desired  to  invest  money  in  western  lands,  some  thou 
sands  of  his  own  wild  acres,  for  the  sum  of  six  thousand  six 
hundred  and  seventy-six  dollars.*  The  purchaser  was  David 
Allison,  then  one  of  the  most  extensive  merchants  in  the 
country,  a  man  whose  paper,  had  he  lived  in  our  day,  would 
have  been  styled  "  gilt-edged."  Allison  paid  for  the  land  in 
three  promissory  notes,  which  were  payable,  as  I  conjecture, 
at  intervals  of  a  year,  or  a  year  and  a  half.  But  so  high  was 
the  credit  of  Allison,  that  Jackson  was  able  with  these  long 
notes,  endorsed  by  himself,  to  buy  in  Philadelphia  a  stocli  of 
goods  suitable  for  the  settlements  on  the  Cumberland  river. 
He  then  resigned  his  seat  in  the  Senate  ;  sent  on  his  goods 
by  wagons  to  Pittsburg,  by  flat-boat  down  the  Ohio  to 
Louisville,  by  wagons  again,  or  pack  horses,  across  the  coun 
try  to  the  neighborhood  of  Nashville  ;  and  went  home  him 
self  to  sell  them. 

He  lived  then  upon  a  plantation  called  Hunter's  Hill, 
about  thirteen  miles  from  Nashville,  and  two  miles  from  the 
"  Hermitage"  that  was  to  be.  He  owned  there  a  tract  of 
many  thousand  acres,  of  which  a  part  was  the  subsequent 
Hermitage  farm.  A  small  portion  only  of  his  estate  was 
under  culture,  but  his  importance  in  the  neighborhood  was 
attested  by  his  living  in  a  frame  house,  at  a  time  when  a 
house  not  made  of  logs  was  a  curiosity.  Long  ago  this  man 
sion  was  burnt,  but  there  is  still  standing,  or  recently  was, 
a  small  block  house  near  Hunter's  Hill,  which  Jackson  is  said 
to  have  used  as  a  store,  and  from  a  narrow  window  of  which 
he  sold  goods  to  the  Indians  ;  whose  thieving  propensities 
obliged  him  to  exclude  them  from  the  interior  of  the  estab- 

*  Papers  in  the  suit  of  Andrew  Jackson  against  Andrew  Erwin.     Nash 
ville,  1813. 


1804,]  MAN     OF     BUSINESS.  243 

lishment.  In  the  selling  of  his  goods  and  the  general  man 
agement  of  his  business,  he  was,  for  some  years,  assisted  by 
John  Hutchings,  a  near  relation  of  Mrs.  Jackson. 

Jackson,  as  we  have  seen,  accepted  the  judgeship  of  the 
Supreme  Court  ;  intending  to  continue  his  little  store  in 
operation,  and  tc  snatch  time  enough  between  his  courts  to 
make  an  occasional  swift  journey  to  Philadelphia  for  the  pur 
chase  of  a  fresh  supply  of  goods.  For  a  while  all  went  well 
with  him.  But,  before  the  first  Allison  note  was  due,  came 
the  crash  and  panic  of  1798  and  1799,  during  which  David 
Allison  failed.  Notice  was  forwarded  to  Jackson  to  provide 
for  the  payment  of  the  notes  with  which  he  had  bought  his 
stock  of  goods.  This  was  a  staggering  blow  ;  not  only  be 
cause  the  amount  of  the  loss  was  large,  but  because  the  notes 
had  to  be  paid  in  money,  real  money,  money  that  was  cur 
rent  in  Philadelphia,  which,  of  all  commodities,  was  the  one 
most  scarce  in  the  new  States  of  the  far  West.  To  the  honor 
of  Andrew  Jackson  be  it  recorded,  that  each  of  these  large 
notes  was  paid,  principal  and  interest,  on  the  day  of  its  ma 
turity.  To  do  this  cost  him  a  long  and  desperate  effort,  one 
more  severe,  perhaps,  than  any  other  of  his  whole  life,  public 
or  private.  But  it  was  done.  In  doing  it,  however,  he  be 
came  involved  in  various  ways.  He  was  an  embarrassed  and 
anxious  man  during  the  whole  period  of  his  judgeship,  and 
found  himself,  after  six  years  of  public  service,  embarrassed 
and  anxious  still. 

Andrew  Jackson  was  a  man  singularly  averse  to  anything 
complicated  ;  and  of  all  complications  the  one  under  which 
he  was  most  restive  was  Debt.  He  hated  Debt.  So,  about 
the  year  1804,  he  resolved  upon  simplifying,  or  "  straighten 
ing  out"  his  aifairs,  and  commencing  life  anew.  He  resigned 
his  judgeship.  He  sold  his  house  and  improved  farm  on 
Hunter's  Hill.  He  sold  twenty-five  thousand  acres,  more  or 
less,  of  his  wild  lands  in  other  parts  of  the  State.  He  paid 
off  all  his  debts.  He  removed,  with  his  negroes,  to  the  place 
now  known  as  the  Hermitage,  and  lived  once  more  in  a  house 
of  logs.  He  went  more  extensively  into  mercantile  business 


244  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1805. 

than  ever.  Soon,  we  find  him  connected  in  business  with 
John  Coffee  ;  the  firm  now  being,  Jackson,  Coffee  &  Hutch- 
ings.  Coffee  had  before  been  engaged  in  business  in  a  neigh 
boring  village,  and,  says  tradition,  had  failed.  The  store 
occupied  by  the  firm  of  Jackson,  Coffee  &  Hutchings  was  a 
block  house,  standing  then,  and  standing  now,  on  Stone's 
Kiver,  at  a  place  called  Clover  Bottom,  four  miles  from  the 
Hermitage,  and  seven  from  Nashville.  The  old  block  house 
is  now  a  pile  without  inhabitant  ;  the  mortar  is  falling  out 
of  the  interstices  ;  the  windows  are  broken  ;  the  roof  is  rotting 
away.  Coffee  (not  yet  married  to  Mrs.  Jackson's  niece)  lived 
in  the  block  house  then,  as  well  as  sold  merchandise  therein, 
and  Jackson  rode  over  in  the  morning  from  the  Hermitage, 
served  in  the  store  all  day,  and  rode  home  at  night,  with  the 
regularity  of  a  man  of  business.  Need  I  add,  that  this  John 
Coffee,  the  partner  of  Andrew  Jackson,  was  afterwards  his 
faithful  comrade  in  the  wars — General  Coffee,  the  Hero  of  thn 
Twenty-third  of  December  1814  ! 

Jackson  was  now  a  man  with  many  irons  in  the  fire. 
First,  there  was  his  farm,  cultivated  by  slaves,  superintended 
by  Mrs.  Jackson,  in  the  absence  of  her  lord.  The  large  fam 
ily  of  slaves,  one  hundred  and  fifty  in  number,  of  which  he 
died  possessed,  were  mostly  descended  from  the  few  that  he 
owned  in  his  storekeeping  days.  He  was  a  vigilant  and  suc 
cessful  farmer.  To  use  the  language  of  the  South,  "  He 
made  good  crops."  He  was  proud  of  a  well-cultivated  field. 
Every  visitor  was  invited  to  go  the  rounds  of  his  farm,  and 
see  his  cotton,  corn,  and  wheat,  his  horses,  cows,  and  mules. 
He  had,  also,  a  backwoodsman's  skill  in  repairing  and  con 
triving,  and  spent  many  a  day  in  putting  an  old  plow  in  order, 
or  finishing  off  a  new  cabin. 

On  his  plantation  he  had  a  cotton-gin,  a  rarity  at  that 
day,*  upon  which  there  was  a  special  tax  of  twenty  dollars  a 
year.  The  tax  books  of  Davidson  county  show  that  in  1804 

*  The  cotton-gin  was  invented  by  Eli  Whitney  of  Massachusetts,  about 
1793.  So  that  the  invention  made  rapid  progress. 


1805.]  MAN     OF     BUSINESS.  245 

there  were  but  twenty-four  gins  in  the  county,  of  which  An 
drew  Jackson  was  the  owner  of  one.  This  cotton-gin  served 
to  clean  his  own  cotton,  the  cotton  of  his  neighbors,  and  that 
which  he  took  in  exchange  for  goods. 

The  business  of  his  store  was  of  several  kinds.  He  sold 
goods  brought  from  Philadelphia,  such  as  cloth,  blankets, 
calico,  and  dry  goods  generally ;  prices  on  the  Cumberland 
being  about  three  times  those  of  Philadelphia.  Broadcloth 
bought  in  Philadelphia  for  five  dollars  a  yard,  Jackson,  Cof 
fee  &  Hutchings  sold  in  their  store  for  fifteen  dollars.*  They 
also  dealt  in  salt,  grindstones,  hardware,  gunpowder,  cow  bells, 
and  whatever  else  the  people  of  the  neighborhood  wanted. 
In  payment  for  these  commodities,  they  took,  not  money,  but 
cotton,  ginned  and  unginned,  wheat,  corn,  tobacco,  pork,  skins, 
furs,  and,  indeed,  all  the  produce  of  the  country.  This  pro 
duce  they  sent  in  flat-boats  down  the  Cumberland,  the  Ohio, 
and  the  Mississippi  to  Natchez,  where  it  was  sold  for  the 
market  of  New  Orleans.  It  appears,  also,  that  the  firm  made 
it  a  business  to  build  boats  for  other  traders,  their  situation 

*  The  following  Price  Current  is  copied  from  the  Impartial  Review,  of  Nash 
ville,  of  January  17,  1807.  It  may  serve  to  show  the  nature  of  mercantile  busi 
ness  at  Nashville  at  the  time  when  Andrew  Jackson  was  a  merchant  in  the 

vicinity : — 

WHOLESALE  TRICES   CTTKREUT  AT  NASHVILLE,  JANUAET  IT,  180T. 

$  cts.  $  cts. 

Ashes,  Pearl  and  Pot none.  Furs,  small 25 

Bacon none.  Feathers,  per  Ib 50 

Beef,  per  cwt 3  Hogs'  Lard,  per  Ib 9 

Butter,  per  Ib 16  1-2  Lead,  per  cwt 10 

Bees' Wax,  per  Ib 25  Leather,  soal 27 

Bear  Skins,  from  75  cts  to 2  Lime,  per  bush 16 

Beaver  Fur,  per  Ib 1  Meal,  Indian,  from  42  cts.  to 50 

Bar  Iron,  per  cwt 10  Pork,  per  cwt 3  50 

Bricks,  per  1000 8  Potatoes,  per  bush 3T  1-fc 

Cotton,  loose,  per  cwt 15  Rice,  per  Ib 9 

Cotton,  baled IT  Salt,  per  bush,  by  the  bbl 2 

Cotton  Baling,  per  yd 38  Staves,  per  1000 3 

Cotton  Cordage,  per  Ib 16  Tobacco,  per  cwt 3 

Candles,  perlb 181-2  Tallow,  per  Ib 10 

Corn,perbbl : 1  Tar,  per  gall 662-3 

Castings,  per  cwt 10  Twine,  per  Ib 58 

Deer  Skins,  per  cwt 16  Wheat nvne. 

Flour,  country,  per  cwt 3  Whisky,  per  gall T5 

Flour,  imported,  per  bbl 8 


246  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1805. 

on  a  branch  of  the  Cumberland  giving  them  facilities  for 
that.  At  one  time,  too,  probably  before  Coffee  joined  them, 
Jackson  and  Hutchings  had  a  branch  of  their  store  at  Galla- 
tin,  the  capital  of  Siimner  county,  Tennessee,  twenty-six  miles 
from  Nashville.* 

*  The  following  are  advertisements  from  the  Impartial  Review,  of  January  17, 
1807:— 

I  am  authorized  by  a  respectable  mercantile  house  in  New  Orleans  to  pur 
chase  one  thousand  bales  of  COTTON,  also  $1000  worth  of  BEAR  SKINS,  for 
which  approved  BILLS  on  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore,  will  be  given 
in  payment.  A.  FOSTER. 

T.  OVERTON  has  Negroes  to  hire,  among  which  are  several  mechanics. 
Also  LANDS  for  sale  in  various  parts  of  the  State. 
SOLDIERS'  REST,  January  9,  1807. 

CAUTION. — The  subscriber  having  been  at  very  considerable  expense  of  in 
closing  that  bend  of  Cumberland  river,  known  by  the  name  of  Robertson's  Bend,  for 
the  purpose  of  confining  and  raising  stock ;  and  finding  that  private  remonstrance 
will  not  prevent  individuals  from  going  into  it  repeatedly  with  guns  and  dogs, 
interrupting  his  stock,  leaving  his  fences  down,  and  even  riding  through  his  cot 
ton  fields,  to  the  considerable  injury  of  his  crops,  is  compelled  to  take  this  method 
to  caution  all  persons  from  entering  said  inclosure,  on  any  pretense  whatever, 
with  gun  or  dog,  as  he  is  determined  to  deal  with  them  (if  detected )  according  to 
law.  Any  person  wishing  to  go  in  quest  of  stock  supposed  to  be  within  the  in 
closure  can  call  at  my  house  and  obtain  permission.  JAMES  ROBERTSON. 

December  17.  1806. 

Bills  of  Exchange. — On  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Boston,  and  Lon 
don  ;  also  Pennsylvania  Bank  POST  BILLS.  Apply  to 

M.  Gr.  CULLEN  &  Co.,  New  Orleans. 

Who  will  advance  four  fifths  of  the  amount  of  all  Cotton,  and  a  proportion 
able  part  of  the  value  of  all  other  produce  addressed  to  their  House  in  Liverpool. 
For  sale,  BILLS  on  London,  at  sixty  days. 

THE  subscriber  wishes  to  inform  the  citizens  of  Nashville  and  its  vicinity 
that  he  intends  carrying  on  the  House  Painting  Business  in  all  its  various 
branches  (equal  to  any  in  Europe).  He  also  intends  guilting,  glazing,  ana  all 
other  works  which  may  come  before  him  in  his  line.  He  hopes  the  small  per 
formance  which  he  has  made  at  Wm.  T.  Lewis'  may  meet  the  approbation  of 
the  community.  EZEKIEL  HUDNALL. 

January  9,  1807 

MARRIED.— On  Thursday  evening  last,  Mr.  STEPHEN  CANTREL,  to  the 
agreeable  and  justly  admired  Miss  JULIET  WINJJLE,  both  of  this  place. 


1805.]  MAN     OF     BUSINESS.  247 

General  Jackson's  fine  horses  were  also  a  source  of  profit 
to  him.  At  that  period  a  good  horse  was  among  the  pio 
neer's  first  necessities  and  most  valued  possessions  ;  and,  to 
this  day,  the  horse  is  a  creature  of  far  more  importance  at 
the  South,  where  every  one  rides  and  must  ride  on  horse 
back,  than  at  the  North,  where  riding  is  the  luxury  of 
the  few. 

In  the  southern  States,  too,  the  horse  is  chiefly  used  for 
the  saddle  ;  there  being  a  servile  class  of  quadrupeds,  mules, 
namely,  to  perform  the  more  laborious  and  less  honorable 
work  of  the  plantation.  The  consequence  is,  that  the  quali 
ties  prized  in  the  horse  are  those  which  fit  him  to  bear  his 
master  along  with  grace,  spirit  and  speed ;  the  qualities  which 
are  summed  up  in  the  expression,  thorough-bred.  At  an 
early  day,  therefore,  we  find  the  Tennesseeans  devoting  great 
attention  to  the  rearing  of  high-bred  horses — a  business  after 
wards  stimulated  by  their  passion  for  the  turf.  Soon  after 
Jackson  left  the  bench,  he  set  off  for  a  tour  in  Virginia,  then 
universally  renowned  for  her  breed  of  horses,  for  the  sole 
object  of  procuring  the  most  perfect  horse  in  the  country.* 
The  far-famed  TEUXTON  was  the  result  of  this  journey ; 
Truxton — winner  of  many  a  well-contested  race,  and  pro 
genitor  of  a  line  of  Truxtons  highly  prized  in  Tennessee  to 
this  hour. 

The  horses  of  Nashville  and  its  vicinity  have  not  deteri 
orated.  The  spectacle  of  a  perfectly  developed,  undirninished 
MAN,  mounted  on  a  faultless  HORSE,  all  gentleness  and  fire, 
mighty  in  size,  swift  of  pace,  and  magnificent  in  form,  is  one 
which  often  delights  and  shames  the  pale  northener  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Nashville.  There  is  a  'gentleman  living  near 
that  pleasant  city  an  owner  of  many  horses,  not  one  of  which 
has  a  pedigree  less  than  two  hundred  years  long. 

To  all  these  sources  of  profit — farm,  cotton-gin,  store,  flat- 
boat  and  horse — was  added,  it  is  said,  an  occasional  transac- 

*  Many  of  these  particulars  were  derived  from  William  Donelson,  Esquire,  a 
younger  brother  of  Mrs.  Jackson,  who  lives  and  has  lived  all  his  life  near  the 
Hermitage,  and  speaks  of  these  things  from  personal  knowledge. 


248  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1805. 

tion  in  negroes.  There  is  an  odium  attached  to  this  business 
in  the  slave  States,  as  is  well  known  ;  and,  consequently,  the 
alleged  negro  trading  of  General  Jackson  has  excited  a  great 
deal  of  angry  controversy.  I  was  myself  informed,  in  a  mys 
terious  whisper,  by  a  southern  gentleman  in  high  office,  that 
this  was  the  only  "  blot"  on  the  character  of  the  General.  It 
is  not  necessary  to  investigate  a  subject  of  this  nature.  The 
simple  truth  respecting  it,  I  presume,  is,  that  having  corre 
spondents  in  Natchez,  and  being  in  the  habit  of  sending  down 
boat-loads  of  produce,  the  firm  of  which  he  was  a  member 
occasionally  took  charge  of  negroes  destined  for  the  lower 
country,  and,  it  may  be,  sold  them  on  commission,  or  other 
wise. 

The  following  letter  was  published  in  the  newspapers  of 
1828,  for  the  purpose  of  drawing  votes  from  General  Jack 
son.  It  was  written  by  a  Mr.  S.  K.  Blythe,  of  Ash  Grove, 
Tennessee  : — 

"  SIR  :  In  reply  to  your  inquiry  as  to  my  knowledge  of  General  Jack 
son  being  concerned  in  buying  and  selling  slaves,  I  will  briefly  state  that 
about  the  year  1805  or  1806  General  Jackson  and  a  Mr.  Hutchings,  his 
nephew  by  marriage,  had  a  store  in  Gallatin.  About  that  time,  they  pur 
chased,  of  Dr.  Rollins,  a  negro  boy,  and  sent  him  to  the  lower  country  to 
sell.  The  negro  had  been  previously  in  the  hands  of  Dr.  Rollins,  to  cure  a 
sore  leg,  and  was  sold  by  Rollins  to  them,  with  a  knowledge,  by  both  par 
ties,  of  that  fact,  as  I  understood  at  the  time.  Some  time  afterward,  I  had 
been  up  the  Ohio,  and  on  my  return  by  the  way  of  Smithland,  I  came  to 
the  place  called  the  Horse  Ford,  below  Eddyville,  where  boats  were  com 
pelled  to  stop  by  reason  of  low  water,  where  I  saw  the  negro  above  alluded 
to,  in  a  barge  on  his  return  from  the  lower  country,  where  they  had  been 
unable  to  sell  him  by  reason  of  his  leg  breaking  out  afresh.  When  the 
negro  came  home,  he  was*  put  under  Dr.  Ward,  and  died.  Jackson  and 
Hutchings  sued  Rollins  for  a  fraud  in  the  negro.  The  suit  was  pending 
several  years,  and  finally  decided  in  favor  of  Rollins.  I  was  summoned  as 
a  witness  in  the  case.  I  have  heard  that  there  were  other  slaves  purchased 
by  Jackson  and  Hutchings,  and  sent  to  the  lower  country  for  sale ;  but  it 
is  so  long  since,  that  I  do  not  recollect  any  other  particular  case  than  the 
one  named,  and  this  one  is  impressed  on  my  memory  from  the  circum 
stance  of  the  long  and  vexatious  lawsuit  to  which  Dr.  Rollins  was  subjected, 
and  the  other  facts  related  as  above." 


1805.]  MAN      OF     BUSINESS.  249 

No  importance  is  to  be  attached  to  this  letter.  The  pur 
pose  for  which  it  was  written,  the  length  of  time  that  elapsed 
between  the  transaction  and  the  time  when  the  account  of  it 
was  drawn  up,  destroy  its  value  as  evidence.  I  may  state 
here,  that  General  Jackson  took  slavery  for  granted.  In  no 
letter  of  his,  of  the  hundreds  I  have  perused,  is  there  a  sen 
tence  indicating  that  he  had  ever  considered  the  subject  as  a 
question  of  right  or  wrong.  His  slaves  loved  him,  and  revere 
his  memory.  He  was  the  most  indulgent,  patient,  and  gen 
erous  of  masters  ;  so  indulgent,  indeed,  that  the  overseers 
employed  by  him  in  later  years,  often  complained  of  the  con 
sequent  laxity  of  discipline  on  the  estate. 

Respecting  General  Jackson's  mode  of  dealing,  we  have 
agreeable  information.  "A  cool,  shrewd  man  of  business/' 
remarked  a  venerated  citizen  of  Nashville.*  "  He  knew  the 
value  of  an  article.  He  knew  his  own  mind.  Hence,  he  was 
prompt  and  decided.  No  chaffering,  no  bargaining.  i  I  will 
give  or  take  so  much  ;  if  you  will  trade,  say  so,  and  have  done 
with  it ;  if  not,  let  it  alone/  A  man  of  soundest  judgment, 
utterly  honest,  naturally  honest ;  would  beggar  himself  to 
pay  a  debt,  and  did  so  ;  could  not  be  comfortable  if  he  thought 
he  had  wronged  any  one.  He  was  swift  to  make  up  his  mind  ; 
yet  was  rarely  wrong  ;  but  whether  wrong  or  right,  hard  to  be 
shaken.  Still,  if  convinced  that  he  was  in  the  wrong,  no  man 
so  prompt  to  acknowledge  and  atone.  He  was  a  bank  hater 
from  an  early  day.  Paper  money  was  an  abomination  to  him, 
because  he  regarded  it  in  the  light  of  a  promise  to  pay,  that 
was  almost  certain,  sooner  or  later,  to  be  broken.  For  his 
own  part,  law  or  no  law,  he  would  pay  what  he  owed ;  he 
would  do  what  he  said  he  would." 

The  credit  of  General  Jackson  was  remarkably  high  in 
Tennessee  at  this  time,  and  continued  so  to  the  end  of  his 
life.  There  was  never  a  day  when  his  name  to  paper  did  not 

*  Dr.  Felix  Robertson,  son  of  General  James  Robertson.  Dr.  Robertson,  as 
before  stated,  was  the  first  boy  born  in  Nashville.  He  remembers  Jackson  from 
1800. 


250  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1805. 

make  it  gold.  The  anecdote  relating  to  this,  which  has  been 
afloat  in  the  papers  so  long,  may  not  be  true,  but  it  might 
have  been  :  "  Some  time  in  1838  or  1839,  a  gentleman  in 
Tennessee  became  involved  and  wanted  money  ;  he  had  prop 
erty  and  owed  debts.  His  property  was  not  available  just 
then,  and  off  he  posted  to  Boston,  backed  by  the  names  of 
several  of  the  best  men  in  Tennessee.  Money  was  tight,  and 
Boston  bankers  looked  closely  at  the  names.  i  Very  good/ 
said  they ;  '  but,  but — do  you  know  General  Jackson  ?'  i  Cer 
tainly/  e  Could  you  get  his  endorsement  ?'  '  Yes,  but  he  is 
not  worth  a  tenth  as  much  as  either  of  these  men  whose  names 
I  offer  you/  i  No  matter  ;  General  Jackson  has  always  pro 
tected  himself  and  his  paper,  and  we'll  let  you  have  the  money 
on  the  strength  of  his  name/  In  a  few  days  the  papers  with 
his  signature  arrived.  The  moment  these  Boston  bankers 
saw  the  tall  A  and  long  J  of  Andrew  Jackson,  our  Teii- 
nesseean  says  he  could  have  raised  a  hundred  thousand  dol 
lars  upon  the  signature  without  the  slightest  difficulty." 

The  store  of  Jackson,  Coffee  &  Hutchings,  it  appears,  did 
not  prove  very  profitable.  Some  bad  debts  were  made,  and 
as  there  was  then  no  mail  between  Nashville  and  the  lower 
country,  there  was  no  way  of  ascertaining  beforehand  the 
market  price  of  the  commodities  bought  for  transportation  to 
New  Orleans.  Sometimes  the  boat-loads  of  produce  reached 
a  glutted  market  and  there  was  a  heavy  loss.  Moreover,  the 
enormous  cost  of  bringing  goods  from  Philadelphia  to  the 
Cumberland  narrowed  the  "  margin"  for  profit,  besides  absorb 
ing  a  large  amount  of  money.  The  tradition  is,  that,  after 
some  years  of  storekeeping,  Jackson  sold  out  to  Coffee, 
taking  notes  payable  at  long  intervals  in  payment  for  his 
share  ;  that  Coffee  floundered  on  awhile  by  himself  and  lost 
all  he  had  in  the  world  ;  that,  afterwards,  Coffee  gave  up  the 
business,  resumed  the  occupation  of  surveying,  prospered,  and 
married  a  niece  of  Mrs.  Jackson  ;  that,  on  the  wedding  day, 
General  Jackson  did  the  handsome  and  dramatic  thing — 
^brought  out  Coffee's  notes  from  his  strong  box,  tore  them  in 
halves,  and  presented  the  pieces  to  the  bride,  with  a  magni 


1805.]  MAN     OF     BUSINESS.  251 

ticent  bow.  Which  latter  incident  has  the  merit  of  being 
entirely  probable  ;  for  his  generosity  to  the  relatives  of  his 
wife  was  boundless. 

Once,  during  these  years  of  business  activity,  General 
Jackson  came  within  an  ace  of  total  ruin,  and  all  through  his 
ignorance  of  law.  When  David  Allison  failed,  he  owed  one 
Norton  Prior  twenty  thousand  dollars  or  more,  which  was 
secured  by  a  mortgage  on  a  tract  of  eighty-five  thousand 
acres  of  land  in  Tennessee,  the  property  of  Allison.  Prior, 
desiring  to  foreclose  the  mortgage,  engaged  Joseph  Anderson, 
a  noted  Tennessee  lawyer,  to  transact  the  business  for  him. 
Anderson  was  elected  United  States  Senator,  and  being, 
therefore,  unable  to  attend  to  the  matter,  engaged  Andrew 
Jackson,  who  was  about  to  retire,  as  he  supposed,  to  private 
life,  to  procure  the  foreclosure.  If  successful,  Jackson  was 
to  have  as  his  fee  ten  thousand  acres  of  the  land.  Upon 
reaching  Tennessee,  Jackson,  as  we  have  seen,  was  elected 
Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court ;  which  excluded  him  from 
practice  at  the  bar.  He  accordingly  confided  the  matter  to 
his  old  friend  John  Overton,  agreeing  to  divide  his  fee  of  ten 
thousand  acres  equally  with  Overton  on  the  completion  of  the 
foreclosure.  Suit  was  brought  in  the  United  States  District 
Court.  The  mortgage  was  foreclosed.  Jackson  received  his 
five  thousand  acres,  which,  during  his  subsequent  embarrass 
ments  he  sold  out  in  small  parcels  to  settlers,  giving  them 
warranted  titles.  That  is  to  say,  he  bound  himself,  in  case 
the  titles  ever  proved  unsound,  to  buy  back  the  land,  not  at 
the  price  at  which  he  sold  it,  but  at  the  price  it  might  be 
worth  in  the  market  at  the  time  when  the  defect  in  the  title 
appeared.  Such  was  the  law  of  Tennessee  at  that  day. 

Years  passed  ;  the  lands  had  trebled,  quadrupled  in  value, 
and  were  covered  with  houses,  barns,  cotton-gins,  and  all  the 
improvements  of  the  growing  country  ;  when  lo  !  a  lawyer, 
who  was  interested  in  a  portion  of  the  Allison  lands,  discov 
ered  that  the  court  which  had  decreed  the  foreclosure  of  the 
mortgage  had  no  jurisdiction  in  the  matter  !  It  was  a  fed* 
eral  court.  Neither  Prior  nor  Allison  were  citizens  of  the 


252  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1805. 

State  in  which  the  suit  was  brought,  and  both  were  citizens 
of  Pennsylvania.  Such  was  the  ignorance,  at  that  day,  even 
among  leading  lawyers,  of  the  laws  growing  out  of  the  two 
fold  sovereignty,  the  State  and  the  United  States  ! 

Upon  hearing  the  whispered  doubt  as  to  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  court,  Jackson  hurried  away  to  his  friend,  George  W. 
Campbell,  at  Nashville,  and  laid  the  case  before  him.  Camp 
bell  told  him  at  once  that  the  proceedings  in  the  foreclosure 
were  void,  and  the  titles  to  the  lands  worthless.  Jackson 
saw  ruin  staring  him  in  the  face  ;  since  the  redemption  of 
the  lands  at  their  enhanced  value,  and  the  purchase  of  all 
the  improvements  upon  them,  would  require  an  amount  of 
money,  the  payment  of  which  would  leave  him  penniless  and 
in  debt  beyond  hope  of  extrication.  Nor  was  he  alone  in 
volved.  Every  owner  of  the  original  tract  of  eighty-five 
thousand  acres  held  his  land  by  the  same  worthless  title ;  and 
those  owners  could  then  be  numbered  by  hundreds  ! 

"  What's  to  be  done  ?"  asked  Jackson  of  his  friend  Camp 
bell,  when  all  the  horrors  of  the  situation  broke  upon  him. 
"  If  our  titles  are  void,  whose  title  is  good  ?  Whose  are  the 
lands  ?" 

To  which  Judge  Campbell  replied,  that  the  foreclosure 
not  having  occurred,  the  lands  belonged  to  the  heirs  of  David 
Allison,  though  it  was  still  subject  to  the  twenty  thousand 
dollar  mortgage. 

"  Go  to  the  heirs  of  Allison,"  said  Campbell  in  substance, 
"armed  with  your  claim  against  the  Allison  estate,  which 
now  must  amount  to  nearly  fourteen  thousand  dollars.  They 
are  in  your  power  ;  you  are  in  theirs.  Exchange  claims  with 
them.  Give  up  their  father's  notes  held  by  you.  Get  from 
them  in  return,  first,  a  renunciation  of  their  merely  technical 
claim  to  this  land  ;  and,  secondly,  the  legal  right  to  pay  off 
the  mortgage.  That  done,  your  titles  are  sound,  and  you 
can  make  such  terms  with  the  other  owners  of  the  lands  as 
will  secure  you  the  payment  of  your  old  claims  upon  David 
Allison.  They  will  ,be  only  too  happy  to  pay  their  just  pro- 


1805  ]  MAN     OF      BUSINESS.  253 

portion  of  the  price  you  will  pay  for  securing  them  in  their 
possessions." 

The  next  morning's  dawn  saw  the  prompt  Jackson 
mounted  for  a  ride  of  four  hundred  miles  through  an  Indian 
wilderness  into  Georgia,  where  the  impoverished  heirs  of 
Allison  were  living.  He  found  them,  stated  his  business, 
accomplished  his  object  by  the  payment  of  a  small  sum  in 
cash,  and  returned  a  happy  man,  rescued  from  the  jaws  of 
ruin.  In  arranging  terms,  however,  with  the  other  proprietors 
of  the  tract,  disputes  arose,  as  might  have  been  expected.  A 
lawsuit  of  twelve  years'  duration  was  the  result,  which  ended 
at  last  in  compromise. 

Jackson  was  still  a  keen  lover  of  sport.  The  people  about 
Nashville  increased  very  rapidly  both  in  numbers  and  wealth 
after  the  new  century  began.  It  became  a  gay  and  somewhat 
dissipated  place.  Billiards,  for  example,  were  played  to  such 
excess,  that  the  game  was  suppressed  by  act  of  the  Legislat 
ure.  The  two  annual  races  were  the  great  days  of  the  year. 
Cards  were  played  wherever  two  men  found  themselves  to 
gether  with  nothing  to  do.  Betting  in  all  its  varieties  was 
carried  on  continually.  Cock-fights  were  not  unfrequent. 
The  whisky  bottle — could  that  be  wanting  ? 

In  all  these  sports — the  innocent  and  less  innocent — An 
drew  Jackson  was  an  occasional  participant.  He  played  bil 
liards  and  cards,  and  both  for  money.  He  ran  horses  and  bet 
upon  the  horses  of  others.  He  was  occasionally  hilarious 
over  his  whisky  or  his  wine,  when  he  came  to  Nashville  on 
Saturdays.  At  the  cock-pit  no  man  more  eager  than  he. 
There  are  gentlemen  of  the  first  respectability  now  living  at 
Nashville  who  remember  seeing  him  often  at  the  cock-pit  in 
the  public  square  adjoining  the  old  Nashville  inn,  cheering  on 
his  favorite  birds  with  loudest  vociferation. 

"  Hurrah !  my  Dominica  !  Ten  dollars  on  my  Dominica  \" 
or,  "  Hurrah  !  my  Bernadotte  !  Twenty  dollars  on  my  Ber- 
nadotte  !     Who'll  take  me  up  ?     Well  done,  my  Bernadotte ! 
My  Bernadotte  for  ever  !" 
VOL.  i. — 17 


254  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

CHAPTER    XXII. 

FIGHTING     ANECDOTES. 

THE  wilderness  does  not  fall  before  the  backwoodsman's 
brawny  arm,  and  become  a  pleasant  habitable  land,  without 
leaving  behind  in  the  heart  of  its  subduer  something  of  its 
own  wildness.  Nor  can  the  civilized  man  contend  with  the 
savage  in  deadly  warfare  for  life  and  home,  without  ex 
changing  qualities,  usages,  and  arts  with  the  foe.  The  west 
ern  man  of  the  olden  time  had  much  of  the  Indian  in  him. 
He  caught  the  Indian's  stealthy  footstep  ;  imbibed  some 
thing  of  his  passion  for  revenge  ;  abandoned  himself  like  him 
to  the  carouse,  and  learned  to  dispense  with  nearly  all  that 
the  Indian  does  not  use.  And  this  was  peculiarly  the  case 
in  the  south-western  States  ;  where,  as  soon  as  the  settlers 
began  to  prosper,  they  began  to  be  relieved  from  labor  by 
slaves  ;  and  were  almost  as  free  to  wander  and  amuse  them 
selves  as  the  Indian  is  who  has  a  toiling  squaw  at  home. 

The  slaves,  too,  were  not  the  docile  creatures  we  see  their 
descendants  now.  Southern  newspapers  of  that  day,  I  ob 
serve,  abound  in  advertisements  of  "new  negroes;"  negroes 
raw  and  savage  from  the  African  coast.  The  same  papers, 
naturally  enough,  teem  with  advertisements  of  runaway 
slaves.  From  looking  over  a  file  of  Georgia  papers  of  1790 
to  1800,  one  would  infer  that  the  insertion  of  such  advertise 
ments  was  the  chief  end  of  the  paper's  existence,  and  the 
principal  source  of  the  printer's  revenue. 

General  Sam  Houston,  a  Tennesseean  of  the  old  school, 
had  this  state  of  things  in  his  memory,  perhaps,  when  he 
wrote  his  recent  letter  against  reopening  the  African  slave 
trade.  "  If  this  were  once  done,"  writes  the  old  soldier, 
"  the  South  would  be  overrun  by  African  barbarians,  and 
our  lives,  and,  what  is  worse,  our  homes  and  our  families, 
would  be  subject  to  their  barbarities."  Inevitably.  The 


1806.]  FIGHTING     ANECDOTES.  255 

present  generation  knows  nothing  of  the  terrible  process  by 
which  African  savages  were  converted  into  patient  and  sub 
missive  servants.  Still  less  can  the  southern  man  of  to-day 
perceive  that  his  own  race  has  been  most  powerfully  influ 
enced  by  the  servile  one.  The  traveler  sees  clearly  enough 
that  the  white  man,  in  exchanging  qualities  with  the  black, 
has  not  made  a  very  good  bargain.  The  black  man  has  im 
bibed  some  of  the  white  man's  best  qualities  ;  the  white  man 
has  caught  some  of  the  negro's  worst. 

Civilization  was  in  the  minority  at  that  day.  Every  thing 
was  against  it.  Abundance — Idleness — Indians — Africans — 
Isolation — Whisky  !  Is  it  surprising  that  the  combined  in 
fluence  of  these,  where  there  was  little  to  counteract  their 
effect,  should  have  converted  large  numbers  of  the  conquering 
race  into  savages,  and  made  almost  every  man  a  savage  in 
some  degree  ? 

We  have  now  to  do  with  one  phase  of  this  savageism 
— fighting.  The  revolutionary  war  introduced  among  the 
people  of  rustic  America  the  practice  of  resorting  to  arms  for 
the  settlement  of  quarrels.  Every  man  who  had  worn  a  sash 
or  even  shouldered  a  musket  in  that  contest,  seems  to  have 
hugged  the  delusion  that  he  was  thenceforth  subject  to  the 
Code  of  Honor.  He  retained  the  title  and  affected  the  tone 
of  a  soldier.  I  call  it  affectation  ;  believing  that  no  man 
with  Saxon  blood  dominant  in  his  veins  ever  yet  fought  a 
duel  without  being  distinctly  conscious  that  he  was  doing  a 
very  silly  thing.  Yet  there  never  existed  a  people  so  given 
to  dueling  and  other  domestic  battling  as  the  people  of  the 
South  and  West  from  1790  to  1810.  In  Charleston,  about 
the  year  1800,  we  are  told,  there  was  a  club  of  duelists,  in 
which  every  man  took  precedence  according  to  the  number  of 
times  he  had  been  "out  ;"*  so  difficult  was  it  for  the  duelists 
to  support  the  reproaches  of  their  own  good  sense.  "  I  be 
lieve,"  says  General  W.  H.  Harrison,  "  that  there  were  more 
duels  in  the  north-western  army  between  the  years  1791  and 

*  Fry's  National  Gazette,  Philadelphia,  1826. 


256  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

1795  than  ever  took  place  in  the  same  length  of  time,  and 
amongst  so  small  a  body  of  men  as  composed  the  commis 
sioned  officers  of  the  army,  either  in  America  or  any  other 
country."'-'5 

As  late  as  1834,  Miss  Martineau  tells  us,  there  were  more 
duels  fought  in  the  city  of  New  Orleans  than  there  are  days 
in  the  year:  "Fifteen  on  one  Sunday  morning;"  "one  hun 
dred  and  two  between  the  1st  of  January  and  the  end  of 
April."t 

In  the  interior  settlements,  if  dueling  was  rarer,  fighting 
of  a  less  formal  and  deadly  character  was  so  common  as  to 
excite  scarcely  any  notice  or  remark.  It  was  taken  for 
granted,  apparently,  that  whenever  a  number  of  men  were 
gathered  together  for  any  purpose  whatever,  there  must  be 
fighting.  The  meetings  of  the  Legislature,  the  convening 
of  courts,  the  assemblages  out  of  doors  for  religious  purposes, 
were  all  alike  the  occasion  both  of  single  combats  and  general 
fights.  "  The  exercises  of  a  market  day,"  says  the  Kev.  Mr. 
Milburn,  "  were  usually  varied  by  political  speeches,  a  sheriff's 
sale,  a  half  a  dozen t  free  figlits  and  thrice  as  many  horse 
&waps." 

David  Crockett  was  a  member  of  the  Tennessee  Legislat 
ure  about  this  time — a  green  and  gawky  gentleman  from  one 
of  the  remote  counties.  He  tells  us  how  he  behaved  to  a 
brother  member,  who  had  alluded  to  the  new-comer  as  the 
"gentleman  from  the  cane."  His  story  shows  that  private 
combat  was  then  regarded  as  a  thing  entirely  of  course  when 
men  differed : — 

"Well,"  says  Crockett,  "I  had  never  made  a  speech  in  my  life.  I 
didn't  know  whether  I  could  speak  or  not;  and  they  kept  crying  out  to  m? 
'  Crockett,  answer  him — Crockett,  answer  him  : — why  the  deuce  don't  you 
answer  him  ?'  So  up  I  popped.  I  was  as  mad  as  fury ;  and  there  I  stood 
and  not  a  word  could  I  get  out.  Well,  I  bothered,  and  stammered,  and 
looked  foolish,  and  still  there  I  stood ;  but  after  a  while  I  began  to  talk.  I 

*  Montgomery's  Life  of  Harrison,  page  319. 
f  Society  in  America,  ii.,  p.  189. 


1806.]  FIGHTING     ANECDOTES.  257 

don't  know  what  I  said  about  my  UU,  but  I  jerked  it  into  him.  I  told 
him  that  he  had  got  hold  of  the  wrong  man ;  that  he  didn't  know  who  he 
was  fooling  with ;  that  he  reminded  me  of  the  meanest  thing  on  God's 
earth,  an  old  coon  dog  barking  up  the  wrong  tree. 

"  After  the  House  had  adjourned,  seeing  Mr.  M 1  walking  off  alone, 

I  followed  him  and  proposed  a  walk.  He  consented,  and  we  went  some 
thing  like  a  mile,  when  I  called  a  halt.  Said  I,  l  M 1,  do  you  know 

what  I  brought  you  here  for  ?'  '  No.'  '  Well,  I  brought  you  here  for  the 
express  purpose  of  whipping  you,  and  I  mean  to  do  it,'  But  the  fellow 
said  he  didn't  mean  anything,  and  kept  'pologising,  till  I  got  into  a  good 
humor.  We  then  went  back  together ;  and  I  don't  believe  anybody  ever 
knew  anything  about  it. 

"  I'll  tell  you  another  story  of  this  same  man :  'Twan't  long  after  my 

difficulty  with  M 1,  before  he  got  into  a  fight  with  a  member  of  the 

Senate,  in  which  he  was  worsted — for  he  had  his  ruffle  torn  off,  and  by 
accident  it  remained  on  the  battle  ground.  I  happened  to  go  there  next 
morning,  and  having  heard  of  the  circumstance,  knew  how  the  ruffle  came 

there.     I  didn't  like  M 1  much,  and  I  determined  to  have  some  fun. 

So  I  took  up  his  fine  cambric  ruffle  and  pinned  it  to  my  coarse  cotton  shirt 
— made  it  as  conspicuous  as  possible,  and  when  the  House  met,  strutted  in. 

I  seated  myself  near  M 1 ;  when  the  members,  understanding  how  it 

was,  soon  filled  the  House  with  a  roar  of  laughter.     M 1  couldn't  stand 

it,  and  walked  out.  I,  thinking  he  might  want  a  fight,  though  I  had  tried 
him,  followed  after ;  but  it  didn't  take  place ;  and  after  a  while  he  came 
up  and  asked  me  if  that  wasn't  his  ruffle.  I  told  him  yes,  and  presenting 
it,  observed  that  I  looked  upon  it  as  the  flag  of  the  lower  House,  which,  in 
battle,  had  been  borne  off  by  the  Senate ;  and,  that  being  a  member  of  the 
lower  House,  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  retake  it."* 

The  same  facetious  narrator  tells  us  of  another  legislator 
who,  on  being  accused  of  corrupt  practices,  mounted  the 
stump  for  the  purpose  of  refuting  the  calumny.  But  his 
rage  was  such  that  he  could  not  utter  a  coherent  sentence. 
So  he  jumped  down,  saying,  "  I  won't  explain  ;  but  I'm 

d d  if  I  can't  whip  the  man  that  started  the  report,"  and 

ran  off  in  search  of  him.  He  could  find  no  author  ;  but, 
added  David,  his  willingness  to  fight  was  taken  as  fair  proof 
of  his  innocence.  Those  were  the  days  when  the  Legislature 
convened  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  when  the 

*  Sketches  and  Eccentricities  of  David  Crockett  of  West  Tennessee,  p.  90. 


258  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

neighbors  of  David  Crockett  so  disdained  the  trammels  of 
custom  as  to  name  their  girls,  Tom,  Jack,  and  Harry,  and 
their  boys,  Mary,  Jane,  and  Susan.* 

We  should  not  naturally  look  into  the  biography  of  a 
clergyman  for  illustrations  of  the  fighting  habits  of  a  people. 
We  find,  however,  some  of  the  most  characteristic  and  aston 
ishing  of  Tennessee  fights  recorded  in  the  autobiography  of 
glorious  old  Peter  Cartwright,  who  fought  and  preached  this 
region  through  in  the  early  part  of  the  century.  It  is  a 
question,  which  converted  most  sinners,  his  fighting  or  his 
preaching.  Here  is  a  scene,  among  the  most  curious  and  sug 
gestive,  as  well  as  amusing,  of  any  ever  described.  It  was  a 
camp  meeting  in  the  woods  : — 

"  We  had  a  great  many  tents,  and  a  large  turn-out  for  a  new  country, 
and,  perhaps,  there  never  was  a  greater  collection  of  rabble  and  rowdies. 
They  came  drunk,  and  armed  with  dirks,  clubs,  knives,  and  horsewhips, 
and  swore  they  would  break  up  the  meeting.  After  interrupting  us  very 
much  on  Saturday  night,  they  collected  early  on  Sunday  morning,  deter 
mined  on  a  general  riot.  At  eight  o'clock  I  was  appointed  to  preach. 
About  the  time  I  was  half  through  my  discourse,  two  very  fine-dressed 
young  men  marched  into  the  congregation  with  loaded  whips,  and  hats  on, 
and  rose  up  and  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  ladies,  and  began  to  laugh  and 
talk.  They  were  near  the  stand,  and  I  requested  them  to  desist  and  get 
off  the  seats;  but  they  cursed  me,  and  told  me  to  mind  my  own  business, 
and  said  they  would  not  get  down.  I  stopped  trying  to  preach,  and  called 
for  a  magistrate.  There  were  two  at  hand,  but  I  saw  they  were  both 
afraid.  I  ordered  them  to  take  these  men  into  custody,  but  they  said  they 
could  not  do  it.  I  told  them,  as  I  left  the  stand,  to  command  me  to  take 
them,  and  I  would  do  it  at  the  risk  of  my  life.  I  advanced  to  wards  them. 
They  ordered  me  to  stand  off,  but  I  advanced.  One  of  them  made  a  pass 
at  my  head  with  his  whip,  but  I  closed  in  with  him,  and  jerked  him  off 
the  seat.  A  regular  scuffle  ensued.  The  congregation  by  this  time  were 
all  in  commotion.  I  heard  the  magistrates  give  general  orders,  command 
ing  all  friends  of  order  to  aid  in  suppressing  the  riot.  In  the  scuffle  I 
threw  my  prisoner  down,  and  held  him  fast ;  he  tried  his  best  to  get  loose  ; 
I  told  him  to  be  quiet,  or  I  would  pound  his  chest  well.  The  mob  rose, 
and  rushed  to  the  rescue  of  the  two  prisoners,  for  they  had  taken  the  other 

*  Sketches  and  Eccentricities,  p.  40. 


1806.]  FIGHTING     ANECDOTES.  259 

young  man  also.  An  old  and  drunken  magistrate  came  up  to  me,  and 
ordered  me  to  let  my  prisoner  go.  I  told  him  I  should  not.  He  swore  if 
I  did  not,  he  would  knock  me  down.  I  told  him  to  crack  away.  Then 
one  of  my  friends,  at  my  request,  took  hold  of  my  prisoner,  and  the  drunken 
justice  made  a  pass  at  me ;  but  I  parried  the  stroke,  and  seized  him  by  the 
collar  and  the  hair  of  the  head,  and  fetching  him  a  sudden  jerk  forward, 
brought  him  to  the  ground,  and  jumped  on  him.  I  told  him  to  be  quiet, 
or  I  would  pound  him  well.  The  mob  then  rushed  to  the  scene ;  they 
knocked  down  seven  magistrates,  and  several  preachers  and  others.  I 
gave  up  my  drunken  prisoner  to  another,  and  threw  myself  in  front  of  the 
friends  of  order.  Just  at  this  moment  the  ringleader  of  the  mob  and  I 
met ;  he  made  three  passes  at  me,  intending  to  knock  me  down.  The  last 
time  he  struck  at  me,  by  the  force  of  his  own  effort  he  threw  the  side  of 
his  face  toward  me.  It  seemed  at  that  moment  I  bad  not  power  to  resist 
temptation,  and  I  struck  a  sudden  blow  in  the  burr  of  the  ear  and  dropped 
him  to  the  earth.  Just  at  that  moment  the  friends  of  order  rushed  by  hun 
dreds  on  the  mob,  knocking  them  down  in  every  direction.  In  a  few 
minutes  the  place  became  too  strait  for  the  mob,  and  they  wheeled  and 
fled  in  every  direction ;  but  we  secured  about  thirty  prisoners,  marched 
them  off  to  a  vacant  tent,  and  put  them  under  guard  till  Monday  morning, 
when  they  were  tried,  and  every  man  was  fined  to  the  utmost  limits  of  the 
law.  The  aggregate  amount  of  fines  and  costs  was  near  three  hundred 
dollars.  They  fined  my  old  drunken  magistrate  twenty  dollars,  and  re 
turned  him  to  court,  and  he  was  cashiered  of  his  office." 

A  scene  without  a  parallel;  in  which  ancient  Law  and  new 
Lawlessness  are  curiously  contrasted.  How  remarkable,  that 
when  there  was  enough  regard  for  law  to  secure  such  ample 
and  prompt  punishment,  there  should  also  have  been  so  much 
rampant  barbarism  !  At  another  of  these  outdoor  gatherings 
the  brave  preacher  had  a  hot  altercation  with  a  notorious  sin 
ner,  who  rejoiced  in  the  title  of  Major,  a  leading  man  in  the 
neighborhood : — 

"  He  flew  into  a  desperate  rage,  and  said  if  he  thought  I  would  fight 

him  a  duel,  he  would  challenge  me. 

"  '  Major,'  said  I,  very  calmly,  '  if  you  challenge  me  I  will  accept  it.' 

"  { Well,  sir,'  said  he,  '  I  do  dare  you  to  mortal  combat.' 

"  'Very  well,  I'll  fight  you  ;  and,  sir,'  said  I,  'according  to  the  laws  of 

honor,  I  suppose  it  is  my  right  to  choose  the  weapons  with  which  we  are 

to  fight.' 


260  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

"  '  Certainly,'  said  he. 

"  '  Well,'  said  I,  v  then  we  will  step  over  here  into  this  lot,  and  get  a 
couple  of  corn  stalks ;  I  think  I  can  finish  you  with  one.' 

"But  0,  what  a  rage  he  got  into,  lie  clenched  his  fists  and  looked  ven 
geance.  Said  he,  '  If  I  thought  I  could  whip  you,  I  would  smite  you  in  a 
moment.' 

"  'Yes,  yes,  Major  L.,'  said  I,  'but,  thank  God,  you  can't  whip  me; 
but  don't  you  attempt  to  strike  me,  for  if  you  do,  and  the  devil  gets  out 
of  you  into  me,  I  shall  give  you  the  worst  whipping  you  ever  got  in  all 
your  life,'  and  then  walked  off  and  left  him." 

Observe  this  story,  too,  and  the  mighty  Peter's  manner  of 
telling  it : — 

"  There  were  two  young  men  in  this  settlement,  of  wealthy  and  Aspect- 
able  parentage,  who  were  distantly  related.  They  both  were  paying  at 
tention  to  a  very  wealthy  young  lady.  Some  jealousy  about  rivalship 
sprung  up  between  them ;  they  were  mutually  jealous  of  each  other,  and 
it  spread  like  an  eating  cancer.  They  quarreled,  and  finally  fought;  both 
armed  themselves5  and  each  bound  himself  in  a  solemn  oath  to  kill  the 
other.  Thus  sworn,  and  armed  with  pistols  and  dirks,  they  attended  camp 
meeting.  I  was  acquainted  with  them,  and  apprised  of  the  circumstances 
of  this  disagreeable  affair.  On  Sunday,  when  I  was  addressing  a  large  con 
gregation,  and  was  trying  to  enforce  the  terrors  of  the  violated  law  of  God, 
there  was  a  visible  power  more  than  human  rested  on  the  congregation. 
Many  fell  under  the  preaching  of  the  word.  In  closing  my  discourse  I 
called  for  mourners  to  come  into  the  altar.  Both  of  these  young  men  were 
in  the  congregation,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  had  convicted  each  of  them;  their 
murderous  hearts  quailed  under  the  mighty  power  of  God,  and  with  dread 
ful  feelings  they  made  for  the  altar.  One  entered  on  the  right,  the  other 
on  the  left.  Each  was  perfectly  ignorant  of  the  other  being  there.  I  went 
deliberately  to  each  of  them,  and  took  their  deadly  weapons  from  their 
bosoms,  and  carried  them  into  the  preachers'  tent,  and  then  returned  and 
labored  faithfully  with  them  and  others  (for  the  altar  was  full)  nearly  all  the 
afternoon  and  night.  These  young  men  had  a  sore  struggle ;  but  the  great 
deep  of  their  hearts  was  broken  up,  and  they  cried  hard  for  mercy,  and  while 
I  was  kneeling  by  the  side  of  one  of  them,  just  before  the  break  of  day^jie 
Lord  spoke  peace  to  his  wounded  soul.  He  rose  in  triumph,  and  gave  some 
thrilling  shouts.  I  hastened  to  the  other  young  man,  at  the  other  side  of 
the  altar,  and  in  less  than  fifteen  minutes  God  powerfully  blessed  his  soul 
and  he  rose  and  shouted  victory;  and  as  these  young  men  faced  about  they 
saw  each  other,  and  starting  simultaneously,  met  about  midway  of  the  altar, 


1806.]  FIGHTING     ANECDOTES.  261 

and  instantly  clasped  each  other  in  their  arras.  What  a  shout  went  up  to 
heaven  from  these  young  men,  and  almost  the  whole  assembly  that  were 
present." 

So  much  for  the  gallant  pioneer  preacher.,  whom,  how 
ever,  we  shall  meet  again,  preaching  valiantly  to  General 
Jackson,  and  sitting  at  the  table  of  the  Hermitage,  an  honored 
guest,  because  he  had  done  so. 

Nolte,  the  New  Orleans  broker  and  banker,  author  of 
"Fifty  Years  in  both  Hemispheres,"  not  the  most  veracious 
work  that  could  be  named,  tells  us,  among  other  things,  that 
"  A  frightfully  cruel  practice  prevailed  at  that  time  among 
the  greater  part  of  the  rude  inhabitants  of  the  western  States. 
It  consisted  in  allowing  the  finger-nails  to  grow  so  long,  that, 
by  cutting  them,  you  could  give  them  the  form  of  a  small 
sickle  ;  and  this  strange  weapon  was  used,  in  the  broils  that 
constantly  occurred,  to  cut  out  the  eyes  of  the  hostile  party. 
This  barbarous  action  was  called  gouging.  Upon  this  excur 
sion  through  Kentucky  I  saw  several  persons  who  lacked  an 
eye,  and  others,  both  of  whose  eyes  were  disfigured.  The  ex 
asperation  then  reigning  throughout  the  United  States,  in 
relation  to  the  difficulties  with  England,  was  much  greater 
in  the  western  provinces  than  along  the  sea  coast,  and  the 
feeling  was  very  intense.  As  I  passed  through  Frankfort,  on 
my  way  from  Lexington  to  Louisville,  I  was  told  that  the 
Legislature  of  Kentucky  was  just  then  in  session.  I  had 
scarcely  entered  the  legislative  hall,  when  I  heard  a  very  en 
thusiastic  orator  dealing  forth  a  violent  diatribe  against  En 
gland,  with  the  following  words  :  'We  must  have  war  with 
Great  Britain — war  will  ruin  her  commerce — commerce  is  the 
apple  in  Britain's  eye — there  we  must  gouge  her  !'  This 
flower  of  oratory  was  received  with  great  applause." 

The  same  author  relates  another  and  more  striking  anec- 
d#te  :  "  Young  Baring  (the  banker)  was  traveling  through 
the  western  part  of  Virginia,  which  was  at  that  time  peopled 
by  the  roughest  class  of  Americans,  and  the  vehicle  he  used 
was  a  very  handsome  and  newly-varnished  traveling  carriage. 
In  accordance  with  the  favorite  custom  of  these  wild  fellows, 


262  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

who  usually  carried  a  pen-knife  or  a  nail  in  their  pockets,  one 
of  the  idlers,  who  stood  and.  leaned  about  the  door  of  the  tav 
ern,  where  he  had  alighted  for  refreshment,  amused  himself 
by  scratching  with  a  nail  all  sorts  of  ridiculous  figures  on  the 
varnish  of  the  carriage  doors.  Baring,  who  came  out  of  the 
inn,  and  caught  our  friend  engaged  in  this  agreeable  and  polite 
occupation,  the  instant  he  saw  what  was  going  on,  very  sharply 
expressed  his  disapprobation.  The  loiterer  responded,  '  Look 
here,  sir,  don't  be  saucy  ;  we  make  no  ceremony.  T'other 
day  we  had  a  European  fellow  here,  like  yourself,  who  was 
mighty  saucy,  so  I  pulled  out  my  pistol  and  shot  him  dead, 
right  on  the  spot.  There  he  lies  !'  Baring  rejoined,  in  the 
coolest  manner  imaginable,  by  asking,  '  And  did  you  scalp 
him,  too  ?'  The  American  was  so  struck  with  this,  and  felt 
this  reproach  upon  his  savage  rudeness  so  keenly,  that,  after 
gazing  at  Baring  suddenly  and  earnestly  for  a  moment  in 
silence,  he  exclaimed,  '  By  God  !  sir,  you  must  be  a  clever 
fellow  !  let's  shake  hands  !'  " 

It  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  the  narrator  of  this 
story,  that  the  wild  Virginian  had  not  killed  any  "  European 
fellow,"  but  was  merely  testing  the  mettle  of  the  stranger  in 
his  own  wild  way ;  or,  as  he  might  have  expressed  it,  was 
"  feeling  around  for  a  fight." 

Perhaps  no  anecdote  of  this  description  conveys  a  more 
vivid  idea  of  the  love  of  combat  which  animated  some  of  the 
early  settlers,  than  the  famous  one  which  opens  the  volume, 
entitled  "  Georgia  Scenes."  It  is  one  of  the  best  managed 
anecdotes  we  have.  The  narrator  was  traveling  in  that  se 
cluded  part  of  Lincoln  county,  Georgia,  which  was  formerly 
called  "  The  Dark  Corner,"  a  region  noted  for  its  natural 
beauty : — 

"  Rapt  with  the  enchantment  of  the  season  and  the  scenery  around  me, 
I  was  slowly  rising  a  slope,  when  I  was  startled  by  loud,  profane,  and 
boisterous  voices,  which  seemed  to  proceed  from  a  thick  covert  of  under 
growth  about  two  hundred  yards  in  the  advance  of  me,  and  about  one 
hundred  to  the  right  of  my  road. 

"  '  You  kin,  kin  you  ?' 


1806.]  FIGHTING     ANECDOTES.  263 

"  '  Yes,  I  kin,  and  am  able  to  do  it !  Boo-oo-oo !  Oh,  wake  snakes, 

and  walk  your  chalks  !  Brimstone  and fire  !  Don't  hold  me,  Nick 

Stoval !  The  fight's  made  up,  and  let's  go  at  it.  my  soul  if  I  don't 

jump  down  his  throat,  and  gallop  every  chitterling  out  of  him  before  you 
can  say  '  quit !' 

"'Now,  Nick,  don't  hold  him!  Jist  let  the  wild-cat  come,  and  I'll 
tame  him.  Ned'll  see  me  a  fair  fight ;  won't  you,  Ned  ?' 

"  i  Oh,  yes ;  I'll  see  you  a  fair  fight,  blast  my  old  shoes  if  I  don't.' 

"  '  That's  sufficient,  as  Tom  Haynes  said  when  he  saw  the  elephant. 
Now  let  him  come.' 

"  Thus  they  went  on,  with  countless  oaths  interspersed,  which  I  dare 
not  even  hint  at,  and  with  much  that  I  could  not  distinctly  hear. 

"  In  Mercy's  name  !  thought  I,  what  band  of  ruffians  has  selected  this 
holy  season  and  this  heavenly  retreat  for  such  Pandsemonian  riots!  I 
quickened  my  gait,  and  had  come  nearly  opposite  to  the  thick  grove 
whence  the  noise  proceeded,  when  my  eye  caught  indistinctly,  and  at  in 
tervals,  through  the  foliage  of  the  dwaif  oaks  and  hickories  which  inter 
vened,  glimpses  of  a  man  or  men,  who  seemed  to  be  in  a  violent  struggle ; 
and  I  could  occasionally  catch  those  deep-drawn,  emphatic  oaths  which 
men  in  conflict  utter  when  they  deal  blows.  I  dismounted  and  hurried  to 
the  spot  with  all  speed.  I  had  overcome  about  half  the  space  which  sep 
arated  it  from  me,  when  I  saw  the  combatants  come  to  the  ground,  and, 
after  a  short  struggle,  I  saw  the  uppermost  one  (for  I  could  not  see  the 
other)  make  a  heavy  plunge  with  both  his  thumbs,  and  at  the  same  instant 
I  heard  a  cry  in  the  accent  of  keenest  torture,  '  Enough  !  My  eye's  out!' 

"  I  was  so  completely  horror-struck,  that  I  stood  transfixed  for  a  mo 
ment  to  the  spot  where  the  cry  met  me.  The  accomplices  in  the  hellish 
deed  which  had  been  perpetrated  had  all  fled  at  my  approach ;  at  least  I 
supposed  so,  for  they  were  not  to  be  seen. 

"  '  Now,  blast  your  corn-shucking  soul,'  said  the  victor  (a  youth  about 
eighteen  years  old)  as  he  rose  from  the  ground,  '  come  cutt'n  your  shines 
'bout  me  agin,  next  time  I  come  to  the  court  house,  will  you  ?  Get  your 
owl-eye  in  agin  if  you  can !' 

"  At  this  moment  he  saw  me  for  the  first  time.  He  looked  excessively 
embarrassed,  and  was  moving  off,  when  I  called  to  him  in  a  tone  embold 
ened  by  the  sacredness  of  my  office  and  the  iniquity  of  his  crime,  '  Come 
back,  you  brute  !  and  assist  me  in  relieving  your  fellow-mortal  whom  you 
have  ruined  for  ever!' 

"My  rudeness  subdued  his  embarrassment  in  an  instant;  and,  with  a 
taunting  curl  of  the  nose,  he  replied,  '  You  needn't  kick  before  you're 
spurr'd.  There  a'nt  nobody  there,  nor  ha'nt  been  nother.  Iwasjist  seem' 
how  I  could  'a  font.'  So  saying,  he  bounded  to  his  plow,  which  stood  in 
the  corner  of  the  fence  about  fifty  yards  beyond  the  battle  ground. 


264  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

"And,  would  you  believe  it,  gentle  reader!  his  report  was  true.  All 
that  I  had  heard  and  seen  was  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  Lincoln  re 
hearsal  ;  in  which  the  youth  who  had  just  left  me  had  played  all  the  parts 
of  all  the  characters  in  a  court  house  fight. 

"  I  went  to  the  ground  from  which  he  had  risen,  and  there  were  the 
prints  of  his  two  thumbs,  plunged  up  to  the  balls  in  the  mellow  earth, 
about  the  distance  of  a  man's  eyes  apart ;  and  the  ground  around  was 
broken  up  as  if  two  stags  had  been  engaged  upon  it." 

But  to  resume.  The  reader  will  not  be  misled  by  these 
and  other  stories  of  frontier  battlings.  The  majority  of  the 
pioneers,  doubtless,  lived  in  peace  with  their  neighbors  all 
the  days  of  their  lives.*  Nor  was  there  any  necessity,  even 
for  a  public  man,  to  fight  duels.  There  was  Judge  Hugh  L. 
White  of  Tennessee,  a  man  of  proved  courage,  who  set  his 
face  against  the  practice  of  dueling  from  the  beginning  of  his 
career,  and  lost  nothing  either  of  the  good  will  or  the  respect 
of  his  neighbors  thereby.  In  1817,  he  procured  the  passage 
of  a  stringent  law  which  almost  put  an  end  to  duels  in  Ten 
nessee.  It  must  be  added,  however,  that  Judge  White  was 
an  exceptional  character.  Such  was  his  tenderness  of  feeling, 
such  his  horror  of  shedding  human  blood,  that  he  would  not 
permit  the  annalist  of  Tennessee  to  so  much  as  record  his 
youthful  exploit  of  killing  the  Indian  chief,  the  King-fisher,  f 

For  a  man  of  General  Jackson's  blood  and  principles  to 

*  The  present  frontier  region  of  the  United  States  exhibits  a  state  of  society 
similar  to  that  which  once  prevailed  in  Tennessee,  Georgia,  and  Kentucky. 

There  is  a  fighting  class  among  the  settlers  in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  But, 
"  this  class,"  writes  Mr.  Horace  Greeley,  in  June,  1859,  "  is  not  numerous."  He 
adds,  however,  that  it  is  "  more  influential  than  it  should  be  in  giving  tone  to  the 
society  of  which  its  members  form  a  part.  Prone  to  deep  drinking,  soured  in 
temper,  always  armed,  bristling  at  a  word,  ready  with  the  rifle,  revolver,  or 
bowie-knife,  they  give  law  and  set  fashions  which,  in  a  country  where  the  regu 
lar  administration  of  justice  is  yet  a  matter  of  prophecy,  it  seems  difficult  to  over 
rule  or  disregard.  I  apprehend  that  there  have  been,  during  my  two  weeks' 
sojourn,  more  brawls,  more  fights,  more  pistol  shots  with  criminal  intent,  in  this 
log  city  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  dwellings  (Danver),  not  three  fourths  completed 
nor  two  thirds  inhabited,  nor  one  third  fit  to  be,  than  in  any  community  of  no 
greater  numbers  on  earth." — N.  Y.  Tribune,  June,  1859. 

f  Memoirs  of  H.  L.  White,  by  Nancy  N.  Scott. 


1806.]     JACKSON   "CANES"   MR.   T.   SWANN.    265 

have  lived  in  the  Tennessee  of  that  day  without  fighting,  was 
impossible.  His  blood  was  hot,  and  his  principles  were  those 
of  a  soldier  of  fifty  years  ago  ;  principles,  remember,  to  which 
he  was  a  convert,  not  an  heir  :  and  a  convert  is  apt  to  be 
over  zealous.  His  good  traits,  no  less  than  his  bad  ones,  in 
volved  him  in  disputes  which,  there  and  then,  could  end  only 
in  fighting.  He  could  not  have  been  Andrew  Jackson  and 
not  fought. 


CHAPTER     XXIII. 

GENERAL  JACKSON  "CANES"  MR.  THOMAS  SWANN. 

AN  industrious  citizen  of  Tennessee,  during  a  certain 
presidential  campaign,  made  a  collection  of  General  Jack 
son's  fights  and  quarrels,  devoting  himself  to  the  work  with 
the  zeal  which  belongs  to  a  collector,  and  never  giving  up  the 
search  till  his  cabinet  contained,  to  use  his  own  language, 
"  nearly  one  hundred  fights,  or  violent  and  abusive  quarrels." 
Then,  resting  from  his  labors,  he  published,  after  the  manner 
of  collectors,  a  descriptive  catalogue  of  the  most  remarkable 
of  his  treasures,  numbered  from  one  to  fourteen.* 

Another  Tennesseean,  professing  to  be  actuated  only  by  a 
desire  for  knowledge,  arranged  the  subject  in  the  form  of  a 
catechism,  or  series  of  questions,  which  he  contrived  to  draw 
out  to  the  number  of  seventeen,  as  thus  :  Did  General  Jack 
son  get  into  an  affray  with  one  Macklin,  and  receive  a  cudgel 
ing  from  that  unknown  individual  ?  What  was  the  nature 
of  the  castigation  which  the  Hero  of  two  Wars  received  from 
Hugh  Montgomery  ?  For  what  offense  did  Robert  Weakly, 

*  Reminiscences ;  or,  an  Extract  from  the  Catalogue  of  General  Jackson's 
"  Juvenile  Indiscretions"  between  the  ages  of  Twenty-three  and  Sixty.  New 
York,  1828. 


266  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

justice,  bind  Andrew  Jackson  to  keep  the  peace  toward  Lewis 
Robards  in  1790  ?  Was  General  Jackson  second  in  a  duel 
between  two  boys  of  eighteen,  Alexander  Dorielson  and  J. 
Winsted,  and  did  he  set  them  up  at  six  feet  ?  Did  John 
Brown  die  in  jail  at  the  suit  of  General  Jackson  for  debt,  and 
if  he  did,  why  such  rigor  ?  Was  there  a  mysterious  funeral 
at  the  Hermitage  last  summer  ?  Did  General  Jackson, 
when  he  was  second  to  Thomas  Overton  in  his  duel  with 
John  Dickerson,  call  out  to  a  carpenter,  as  they  were  going 
to  the  ground,  to  get  a  coffin  ready  for  Dickerson  ?  What 
about  General  Jackson's  quarrels  with  John  McNairy,  David 
McGavock,  William  Polk,  Kobert  Weakly,  John  Strother 
and  Robert  Hayes  ?  How  came  the  Hero  to  run  Sam  Jack 
son  through  the  body  in  the  streets  of  Nashville  ?  and  so  on 
as  far  as  number  seventeen. 

We  need  not  rake  over  the  ashes  of  all  these  extinct  quar 
rels.  Andrew  Jackson  lived  seventy-eight  years.  Granting 
that  he  had  in  his  life  a  hundred  quarrels,  it  does  not  make 
the  average  per  annum  unreasonably  high,  considering  that 
it  was  his  principle  to  make  his  friend's  quarrel  his  own,  and 
considering,  too,  that  during  the  first  fifteen  years  of  his  resi  - 
dence  in  Tennessee  he  held  offices  which  necessarily  brought 
him  into  collision  with  the  entire  rascality  of  the  State. 

With  regard  to  the  personal  violence  to  which  some  of 
these  controversies  led,  the  reader  must  be  aware  that,  in 
Tennessee,  when  Andrew  Jackson  was  a  young  man,  people 
of  warm  temperament  seldom  quarreled  without  fighting. 
They  thought  it  best  to  bring  disputes  to  the  swift  arbitra 
ment  of  battle,  and  so  end  them.  They  felt  as  valiant  old 
Cartwright  felt  when  some  one  threatened  to  "  whip"  him. 
"  Well,  sir,"  said  the  fighting  preacher,  "  I  never  like  to  live 
in  dread.  If  you  really  intend  to  whip  me,  come  and  do  it 
now."  The  man  continuing  to  bluster  and  threaten,  the 
indomitable  Peter  got  off  his  horse,  and  thus  addressed  the 
man  :  (<  Now,  sir,  you  have  to  whip  me,  as  you  threatened, 
or  quit  cursing  me,  or  I  will  put  you  in  the  river,  and  baptize 
you  in  the  name  of  the  devil,  for  surely  you  belong  to  him," 


1806.1    JACKSON    "CANES"    MR.    T.    SWANN.    267 


"  This  settled  him,"  remarks  Cartright ;  and  soon  after, 
when  the  preacher  was  a  candidate  for  office,  the  would-be 
whipper  voted  for  him,  and  remained,  ever  after,  his  warm 
friend.  That  was  the  true  western  method — Jackson's 
method — to  let  a  quarrel  blaze  itself  out  as  soon  as  pos 
sible,  not  smolder  for  years,  souring  and  corroding  two 
lives. 

Let  most  of  the  old  Jacksonian  quarrels  pass  into  oblivion. 
Some  of  them,  however,  were  of  such  a  nature,  and  are  so 
notorious,  that  they  can  not  be  omitted  in  any  fair  account 
of  his  career.  We  have  now  arrived  at  one  of  these.  The 
series  of  trivial  and  absurd  events  which  led  to  the  horrible 
tragedy  of  the  Dickinson  duel — events  which,  but  for  that 
tragic  ending,  would  be  nothing  more  than  amusing  illustra 
tions  of  the  manners  of  a  past  age — now  claim  our  serious 
attention. 

It  all  grew  out  of  a  projected  horse  race  that  was  never 
run. 

Genera]  Jackson,  always  fond  of  the  turf,  as  all  men  of 
his  temperament  were,  are,  and  will  always  be,  was  in  these 
years  particularly  devoted  to  it,  because  it  was  a  source  of 
profit  to  him  as  well  as  pleasure.  The  Nashville  race-course, 
too,  was  then  at  Clover  Bottom,  close  to  his  own  store,  a 
superb  circular  field  on  Stone's  river,  famous  as  being  the 
place  where  old  Colonel  Donelson,  after  his  adventurous 
river-voyage,  planted  his  first  corn  ;  famous,  too,  for  having 
borne  fine  crops  of  corn  for  sixty  years  without  rotation.  A 
beautiful  field  it  is,  just  large  enough  for  a  mile  course,  with 
the  requisite  margin  for  spectators  and  their  vehicles.  Here 
Jackson  trained  his  racing  colts  ;  here  he  tried  the  paces  of 
his  renowned  horse,  Truxton,  when  he  first  brought  him  home 
from  Virginia  ;  here,  every  spring  and  autumn,  he  attended 
the  races,  among  the  most  eager  of  the  motley  throng  which 
those  great  occasions  assembled.  The  ownership  of  Truxton 
rendered  General  Jackson  a  leader  of  the  turf  for  some  years, 
as  that  horse  was  conceded  to  be  superior  to  any  other  in  that 
part  of  the  great  West. 


268  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

The  name  of  this  animal  indicates  the  feelings  of  Jackson 
at  that  time.  Commodore  Truxton  was  then  in  the  zenith 
of  his  popularity,  as  he  had  added  to  his  revolutionary  re 
nown,  by  overcoming,  with  his  frigate  Constellation,  the 
French  ships  L'Insurgente,  in  1799,  and  La  Vengeance,  in 
1800,  both,  after  a  well-fought  action,  and  with  a  heavy  loss 
on  the  part  of  the  enemy.  Truxton  and  the  Constellation 
were  magic  names  in  the  early  part  of  the  century.  General 
Jackson  could  boast  that  he  had  voted  for  the  completion  of 
the  Constellation  at  a  time  when  the  Navy  was  regarded  as  a 
federal  creation,  an  aristocratical  device  of  John  Adams. 

For  the  autumn  races  of  1805,  a  great  race  was  arranged 
between  General  Jackson's  Truxton  and  Captain  Joseph  Er- 
vin's  Plow  Boy.  The  stakes  were  two  thousand  dollars,  pay 
able  on  the  day  of  the  race  in  notes,  which  notes  were  to  be 
then  due  ;  forfeit,  eight  hundred  dollars.  Six  persons  were 
interested  in  this  race  :  on  Truxton's  side,  General  Jackson, 
Major  W.  P.  Anderson,  Major  VerrelL,  and  Captain  Pry  or  ;  on 
the  side  of  Plow  Boy,  Captain  Ervin  and  his  son-in-law, 
Charles  Dickinson.  Before  the  day  appointed  for  the  race 
arrived,  Ervin  and  Dickinson  decided  to  pay  the  forfeit  and 
withdraw  their  horse,  which  was  done,  amicably  done,  and 
the  affair  was  supposed  to  be  at  an  end. 

About  this  time  a  report  reached  General  Jackson's  ears 
that  Charles  Dickinson  had  uttered  disparaging  words  of 
Mrs.  Jackson,  which,  as  Colonel  Avery  has  told  us,  was  with 
Jackson  the  sin  not  to  be  pardoned.  Dickinson  was  a 
lawyer  by  profession,  but,  like  Jackson,  speculated  in  produce, 
horses,  and  (it  is  said)  in  slaves.  He  was  well  connected, 
possessed  considerable  property,  and  had  a  large  circle  of  gay 
friends.  He  is  represented  as  a  somewhat  wild,  dissipated 
young  man  ;  yet  not  unamiable,  nor  disposed  wantonly  to 
wound  the  feelings  of  others.  When  excited  by  drink,  or  by 
any  other  cause,  he  was  prone  to  talk  loosely  and  swear  vio 
lently — as  drunken  men  will.  He  had  the  reputation  of  being 
the  best  shot  in  Tennessee.  Upon  hearing  this  report,  Gen 
eral  Jackson  called  on  Dickinson  and  asked  him  if  he  had 


1806.]     JACKSON    "CANES"    MR.   T.   SWANN.     269 

used  the  language  attributed  to  him.  Dickinson  replied  that 
if  he  had,  it  must  have  been  when  he  was  drunk.  Further 
explanations  and  denials  removed  all  ill  feeling  from  General 
Jackson's  mind,  and  they  separated  in  a  friendly  manner. 

A  second  time,  it  is  said,  Dickinson  uttered  offensive  words 
respecting  Mrs.  Jackson  in  a  tavern  at  Nashville,  which  were 
duly  conveyed  by  some  meddling  parasite  to  General  Jackson. 
Jackson,  I  am  told,*  then  went  to  Captain  Ervin,  and  ad 
vised  him  to  exert  his  influence  over  his  son-in-law,  and  in 
duce  him  to  restrain  his  tongue,  and  comport  himself  like  a 
gentleman  in  his  cups.  "  I  wish  no  quarrel  with  him,"  said 
Jackson  ;  "  he  is  used  by  my  enemies  in  Nashville,  who  are 
urging  him  on  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  me.  Advise  him  to  stop 
in  time."  It  appears,  however,  that  enmity  grew  between 
these  two  men.  In  January,  1806,  when  the  events  occurred 
that  are  now  to  be  related,  there  was  the  worst  possible  feel 
ing  between  them. 

I  give  this  account  of  the  origin  of  the  enmity  as  1  have 
received  it  from  General  Jackson's  surviving  associates.  Not 
that  they  received  it  from  him.  General  Jackson  was  so 
averse  to  talking  of  a  finished  quarrel,  that  many  of  his  most 
intimate  friends — friends  of  years'  standing — never  heard  him 
once  allude  to  this  sad  business. 

An  affray  in  a  Nashville  tavern,  between  General  Jackson 
and  a  Mr.  Thomas  Swann  was  the  first  act  of  the  tragedy. 
Swann  was  a  very  young  man,  recently  from  Virginia,  where 
he  had  completed  his  legal  studies,  and  whence  he  had  mi 
grated  to  Tennessee,  with  excellent  letters  of  introduction  in 
his  pocket.  Two  accounts  of  this  affray  are  before  me  ;  one 
prepared  by  Mr.  Swann,  the  other  by  General  Jackson.  The 
reader  shall  have  the  substance  of  both  of  them,  as  published 
in  the  Nashville  newspaper  of  the  time,  called  by  the  impos 
ing  name  of  the  Impartial  Review  and  Cumberland  Reposi 
tory,  edited  by  Thomas  Eastin,  one  of  Mrs.  Jackson's  innu 
merable  relatives. 

*  By  General  Sara  Houston. 
VOL.  I. — 18  J 


270  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

Mr.  Swann  states  his  case  thus  : — 

"  Patten  Anderson"  (warm  friend  to  Jackson)  "  had  observed  in  Messrs. 
George  &  Robert  Bell's  store,  in  presence  of  George  Bell,  Samuel  Jackson 
and  myself,' that  the  notes  offered  by  Captain  Joseph  Ervin,  at  the  time 
of  paying  the  forfeit  between  Truxton  and  Plow  Boy,  were  different  from 
those  which  General  Jackson  agreed  to  receive.  Mr.  Samuel  Jackson  dis 
closed  this  remark  to  Mr.  Charles  Dickinson,  who  called  on  me  at  King, 
Carson  &  King's  store,  for  a  confirmation  of  the  report.  I  assured  him 
that  the  information  received  from  Samuel  Jackson  was  correct.  A  few 
days  after  this,  I  met  with  General  Jackson  at  his  own  store,  and  had  with 
him  the  following  conversation : — 

" '  Did  Captain  Ervin  or  Mr.  Dickinson  (I  asked)  offer  to  you  in  pay 
ment  of  the  forfeit,  different  notes  from  those  which  you  had  agreed  to 
receive  at  the  time  of  making  the  race  ?' 

"  His  answer  was,  that  Dickinson's  notes  were  the  same ;  but  that 
Captain  Ervin's  were  different,  and  assigned  this  reason,  that  the  notes 
which  Captain  Ervin  was  to  have  staked,  arid  which  he  (Jackson)  agreed 
to  receive,  were  due,  and  on  demand ;  but  when  he  came  forward  to  pay 
the  forfeit,  he  offered  him  notes,  not  one  (as  well  as  I  can  recollect  the 
expression)  of  which  was  due. 

"  Not  many  days  after  this,  Captain  Ervin  and  myself  were  riding  from 
Nashville  to  Cloverbottom ;  Ervin  asked  me  whether  I  had  heard  Patten 
Anderson  make  the  statement  above  spoken  of.  I  informed  him  I  had. 
He  then  asked, 

"  '  Did  you  ever  hear  General  Jackson  say  anything  about  it?' 

"  I  then  related  to  him  the  conversation  betwixt  General  Jackson  and 
myself.  Ervin  denied  the  statement  made  by  Jackson  to  be  correct ;  and 
said  he  would  prove  by  the  affidavits  of  Mr.  Dickinson,  Mr.  Carson  and 
Captain  Wright,  that  they  were  the  same ;  that  he  tendered  to  General 
Jackson  no  note  but  what  he  had  offered  in  stake ;  nor  did  he  retain  any 
from  him  but  one  on  Eobert  Thompson,  for  which  he  gave  his  own  to  the 
house  of  King  &  Carson.  I  advised  Captain  Ervin  first  to  speak  with  Gen 
eral  Jackson  on  the  subject,  and  we  parted  without  further  conversation. 

"  On  Saturday,  the  28th  day  of  December,  1805,  Captain  Ervin,  Mr. 
Dickinson  and  General  Jackson  met  in  Nashville,  when  a  conversation  was 
introduced  by  Mr.  Dickinson  relative  to  the  identity  of  the  notes  offered  by 
himself  and  Captain  Ervin  in  payment  of  the  forfeit.  Mr.  Dickinson 
informed  me  that  General  Jackson  did,  to  him  and  Captain  Ervin,  acknowl 
edge  that  the  notes  offered  by  them  at  the  time  of  paying  the  forfeit  were 
the  same  which  he  had  agreed  to  receive ;  and  further  asserted,  that  who 
ever  was  the  author  of  a  report,  that  he  (General  Jackson)  had  stated 


1806.]     JACKSON    "CANES"   MR.  T.  SWANN.        271 

them  to  be  different,  was  'a  damned  liar.'     On  the  day  after  receiving  this 
information  from  Mr.  Dickinson,  I  wrote  this  note : — 

"NASHVILLE,  January  3d,  1806. 

"  GENERAL  ANDREW  JACKSON  : — Sir,  I  was  last  evening  informed  by  Mr. 
Dickinson  that,  when  called  on  by  Captain  Ervin  and  himself  at  Mr. 
Winn's  tavern,  on  Saturday  last,  to  say  whether  the  notes  offered  by  them, 
or  either  of  them,  at  the  time  the  forfeit  was  paid  in  the  race  between 
Truxton  and  Plow  Boy,  were  the  same  received  at  the  time  of  making 
the  race,  you  acknowledged  they  were,  and  further  asserted  that  whoever 
was  the  author  of  a  report  that  you  had  stated  them  to  be  different,  was  a 
damned  liar !  The  harshness  of  this  expression  has  deeply  Avounded  my 
feelings ;  it  is  language  to  which  I  am  a  stranger,  which  no  man,  acquainted 
with  my  character,  would  venture  to  apply  to  me,  and  which,  should  the 
information  of  Mr.  Dickinson  be  correct,  I  shall  be  under  the  necessity  of 
taking  proper  notice  of.  I  shall  be  at  Rutherford  court  before  you  will 
receive  this,  from  whence  I  shall  not  return  to  Nashville  before  Thursday 
or  Friday,  at  which  time  I  shall  expect  an  answer.  I  am,  sir,  your  obedi 
ent  servant, 

"THOMAS  SWANN. 

"  To  this  note  General  Jackson  replied  in  a  letter  couched  in  the  fol 
lowing  ambiguous  expressions : — 

"HERMITAGE,  January  7th,  1806. 

"  THOMAS  SWANN,  ESQ.  : — Sir,  late  last  evening  was  handed  me, 
among  my  returns  from  Haysborough,  a  letter  from  you,  of  the  3d  inst., 
stating  information  from  Dickinson,  etc.,  etc.,  etc.  Was  it  not  for  the 
attention  due  to  a  stranger,  taking  into  view  its  tenor  and  style,  I  should 
not  notice  its  receipt.  Had  the  information,  stated  to  have  been  received 
from  Mr.  Dickinson,  stated  a  direct  application  of  harsh  language  to  you — 
had  you  not  known  that  the  statement,  as  stated  in  your  letter,  was  net 
correct — had  it  not  taken  place  in  the  same  house  where  you  then  were — 
had  not  Mr.  Dickinson  been  applied  to  by  me  to  bring  you  forward  when 
your  name  was  mentioned,  and  he  declined — had  I  not  the  next  morning  had 
a  conversation  with  you  on  the  same  subject,  and,  lastly,  did  not  your  let 
ter  hold  forth  a  threat  of  '  proper  notice,'  I  should  give  your  letter  a  direct 
answer.  Let  me,  sir,  observe  one  thing :  that  I  never  wantonly  sport  with 
the  feelings  of  innocence,  nor  am  I  ever  awed  into  measures.  If  incau 
tiously  I  inflict  a  wound,  I  always  hasten  to  remove  it ;  if  offense  is  taken 
where  none  is  offered  or  intended,  it  gives  me  no  pain.  If  a  tale  is  listened 
to  many  days  after  the  discourse  should  have  taken  place,  when  all  parties 
are  under  the  same  roof,  I  always  leave  the  person  to  judge  of  the  motives 
that  induced  the  information,  and  leave  them  to  draw  their  own  conclu 
sions,  and  act  accordingly.  There  are  certain  traits  that  always  accompany 


272  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

the  gentleman  and  man  of  truth.  The  moment  he  hears  harsh  expressions 
applied  to  a  friend,  he  will  immediately  communicate  it,  that  explanation 
may  take  place ;  when  the  base  poltroon  and  cowardly  tale-bearer  will 
always  act  in  the  background.  You  can  apply  the  latter  to  Mr.  Dickinson, 
arid  see  which  best  fits  him.  I  write  it  for  his  eye,  and  the  latter  I  em 
phatically  intend  for  him.  But,  sir,  it  is  for  you  to  judge  for  yourself; 
diaw  your  own  conclusions,  and,  when  your  judgment  is  matured,  act 
accordingly.  When  the  conversation  dropt  between  Mr.  Dickinson  and 
myself,  I  thought  it  was  at  an  end.  As  he  wishes  to  blow  the  coal,  I  am 
ready  to  light  it  to  a  blaze,  that  it  may  be  consumed  at  once,  and  finally 
extinguished.  Mr.  Dickinson  has  given  you  the  information,  the  subject 
of  your  letter.  In  return,  and  in  justice  to  him,  I  request  you  to  show  him 
this.  I  set  out  this  morning  for  South-west  Point.  I  will  return  at  a  short 
day,  and,  at  all  times,  be  assured  I  hold  myself  answerable  for  any  of  my 
conduct,  and  should  any  thing  herein  contained  give  Mr.  Dickinson  the 
spleen,  I  will  furnish  him  with  an  anodine  as  soon  as  I  return.  I  am,  sir, 
your  obedient  servant, 

"  ANDREW  JACKSON. 

"P.  S. — There  were  no  notes  delivered  at  the  time  of  making  the 
race,  as  stated  in  your  letter ;  nor  was  the  meeting  between  me  and  Mr. 
Dickinson  at  Mr.  Winn's  tavern  on  that,  subject.  The  subject  of  the  notes 
was  introduced  by  Mr.  Dickinson  as  an  apology  for  his  conduct,  the  subject 
of  conversation." 

Mr.  Swann  indulges  in  a  variety  of  comments  on  General 
Jackson's  letter,  which  are  not  important.  He  resumes  his 
narrative  : — 

"  We  will  now  take  a  view  of  the  heroic  General's  conduct  subsequent 
to  the  diction  of  his  ambiguous  letter,  'AND  LET  IT  BE  REMEMBERED,' that 
the  Sunday  after  its  reception  he  came  to  town,  and  after  having  devoted 
the  greater  part  of  the  evening*  to  the  pleasures  of  Bacchus,  he  desired  Mr. 
John  Coffee  to  tell  me  if  I  wished  to  speak  with  him  to  do  so  immediately, 
as  he  was  then  ready  to  return  home.  An  interview  was  accordingly  re 
quested,  in  which,  contrary  to  my  expectation,  abuse  was  substituted  for 
explanation.  I  told  him  I  should  demand  that  satisfaction  which,  as  a 
gentleman,  I  was  entitled  to  receive.  His  reply  was,  that  if  I  challenged 
him  he  would  cane  me.  I  rejoined  that  his  threats  I  despised,  and  if  he 
dared  to  execute  them  I  would  put  him  instantly  to  death.  He  went  into 
the  public  room  at  Mr.  Winn's  tavern,  and  there,  in  the  presence  of  a  num- 

*  At  the  South  the  word  evening  means  afternoon. 


1806.]     JACKSON   "CANES"   MR.   T.   SWANN.     273 

her  of  gentlemen,  publicly  proclaimed  that  if  I  dared  to  challenge  him  he 
would  cane  me,  and  then  give  me  satisfaction ;  boasted  that  he  would  not 
wish  a  better  breakfast  than  to  kill  fifty  such  men,  and  insinuated  that  it 
would  be  presumption  in  me  to  challenge  a  man  of  his  age  and  standing  in 
society.  In  a  few  days  he  received  from  me  a  note,  of  which  the  fallowing 
is  a  copy  :— 

"  GENERAL  ANDREW  JACKSON. — Think  not  that  I  am  to  be  intimidated 
by  your  threats.  No  power  terrestrial  shall  prevent  the  settled  purpose  of 
my  soul.  The  statement  I  have  made  in  respect  to  the  notes  is  substan 
tially  correct.  The  torrent  of  abusive  language  with  which  you  have  as 
sailed  me  is  such  as  every  gentleman  should  blush  to  hear  ;  your  menaces 
I  set  at  defiance  ;  and  now  demand  of  you  that  reparation  which  one  gen 
tleman  is  entitled  to  receive  of  another.  My  friend  the  bearer  of  this  is 
authorized  to  make  complete  arrangements  in  the  field  of  honor. 

"  THOMAS  SWANN. 
"NASHVILLE,  January  12th,  1806. 

"  To  this  he  refused  giving  a  direct  answer,  saying  to  my  friend  that 
he  must  first  know  me  to  be  a  gentleman.  He  then  introduced  a  conver 
sation  relative  to  the  cause  which  produced  the  note,  stating,  that  the  ob 
servations  made  to  Charles  Dickinson  were  not  intended  to  have  applica 
tion  to  me,  and  that  I  could  not  by  any  possible  fair  construction  make 
them  apply  to  myself;  but  if  I  thought  proper  to  trim  or  pare  my  head  to 
fit  the  cap,  he  could  not  help  it,  but  he  did  not  intend  it  for  me ;  he  con 
cluded  by  saying  he  would  not  answer  my  note,  but  would  be  in  town  on 
the  next  day. 

"  From  a  report  of  these  observations  I  was  induced  to  believe  that 
General  Jackson's  intentions  were  pacific,  and  expected  on  his  arrival  in 
town  to  receive  from  him  overtures  of  accommodation.  Then,  judge  of 
my  surprise  (being  thrown  entirely  off  my  guard  to  repel  any  hostile  attack) 
when,  on  the  next  day,  passing  through  the  pubUc  room  in  the  tavern,  (not 
knowing  that  General  Jackson  was  in  town)  he,  surrounded  by  his  friends, 
with  a  large  bludgeon  and  a  brace  of  pistols,  assailed  me,  without  giving 
me  a  moment's  warning  to  defend  myself!  The  affray  being  ended,  I 
again  demanded  that  reparation  which  the  day  before  he  had  refused  to 
give  ;  and  upon  this  ground,  that  having  shown  a  disposition  to  execute 
the  first  part  of  a  threat  made  a  few  days  before,  viz.,  to  cane  and  then 
give  rne  satisfaction,  he  would  now  comply  with  the  latter  part  of  his 
promise ;  but  the  ingenious  General  had  discovered  another  pretext  to 
shield  himself  from  the  dangers  of  an  equal  combat — '  he  did  not  know  me 
as  a  gentleman.'  Can  he  produce  the  testimony  of  a  single  witness  to 
prove  one  solitary  act  of  my  life  a  departure  from  this  character  ?  I  defy 


274  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

him  to  do  it.  But  perhaps,  being  a  stranger,  it  may  be  said  he  did  not 
know  whether  I  was  or  not.  To  those  who  propose  this  query  I  answer, 
he  was  told  I  had  letters  of  introduction,  and  could  procure  certificates  to 
prove  I  was  entitled  to  that  character.  But  the  General  is  forty-five  years 
of  age  1 ! !  Ergo,  the  laws  of  his  country  exempt  him  from  the  perform 
ance  of  military  duty.  In  honor's  code  no  such  privileges  are  to  be  found. 
In  a  court  of  honor  no  such  pleas  are  offered." 

Such  was  the  Swann  version  of  this  affray,  to  which  may 
be  properly  added  an  important  fact  which  Mr.  Swann  omits. 
General  Jackson,  in  his  "  ambiguous"  letter,  made  some  as 
persions  upon  Charles  Dickinson  which  were  the  contrary  of 
ambiguous,  and  notified  Mr.  Swann  that  those  remarkably 
unambiguous  expressions  were  designed  for  Dickinson's  own 
eye.  Swann  accordingly  showed  the  letter  to  Dickinson, 
who  immediately  wrote  to  General  Jackson  the  following 
response  : — 

"JANUARY  10,  1806. 

"  GENERAL  ANDREW  JACKSON,  SIR  : — Last  evening  was  shown  me  by 
Mr.  Thomas  Swann  a  letter  from  you  in  answer  to  a  letter  he  had  written 
you  respecting  a  conversation  that  took  place  between  you  and  myself  at 
Mr.  Winn's  tavern,  etc.,  etc. 

"  I  there  informed  you  of  a  report  that  Patten  Anderson  had  given 
publicity  to,  that  a  different  list  was  produced  when  we  were  about  paying 
the  forfeit,  from  the  one  we  were  to  make  our  stake  out  of,  and  that  he 
had  it  from  your  which  you  denied  ever  sanctioning.  I  then  informed  you 
I  had  another  author  who  said  he  did  hear  you  say  that  a  different  list  was 
brought  by  Captain  Erwin,  which,  as  soon  as  I  mentioned,  and  before  I 
could  give  my  author,  you  declared  the  author  had  told  a  damned  lie; 
that  so  far  from  saying  so,  you  had  never  intimated  such  a  thing  to  any 
one,  and  immediately  asked, '  Who  was  the  author  ?'  to  which  I  answered, 
*  Thomas  Swann.'  You  wished  Mr.  Swann  to  be  called  forward,  which  I 
declined,  lest  Mr.  Swann  might  think  I  wished  to  throw  the  burden  off  my 
shoulders  on  his ;  and  the  business  being  then  entirely  between  Mr.  Swann 
and  yourself — Mr.  Swann  asserting  that  you  had  told  him  that  a  different 
list  was  produced  by  Captain  Erwin,  and  you  as  positively  denying  it. 

"  After  the  report  was  circulated  by  Patten  Anderson,  Mr.  Swann  (as 
he  informed  me)  was  anxious  to  know  if  Patten  Anderson  was  your  her 
ald;  and  further,  as  he  had  been  introduced  to  Captain  Erwin  as  a  gentle 
man,  he  was  desirous  of  knowing  if  any  improper  conduct  had  been  at- 


1806.]     JACKSON    "CANES"    M  u .    T  .    SWANN.    275 

tempted,  and  after  he  had  mentioned  the  business  to  you,  you  answered 
concerning  the  stake  and  forfeit  as  stated  above. 

"Your  letter  is  so  replete  with  equivocations  that  it  is  impossible  for 
rne  to  understand  you.  But  in  one  part  of  your  letter  you  say,  'had  you 
not  known  that  the  statement  of  Mr.  Dickinson  was  not  correct/  which  is 
denying  that  you  contradicted  what  Mr.  Swann  had  asserted.  Should  that 
be  your  meaning,  I  can  prove  it,  not  only  by  the  assertions,  but  oaths  of 
Mr.  Samuel  Jackson  and  Captain  Ervin,  whom  I  shall  have  sworn,  that  the 
world  may  know  who  can  prove  himself  the  gentleman  and  man  of  truth. 
Why  should  you  have  wished  to  have  Mr.  Swann  called  had  you  not  de 
nied  what  he  had  asserted?  And  do  you  pretend  to  call  a  man  a  tale 
bearer  for  telling  that  which  is  truth  and  can  be  proved?  Mr.  Swann, 
after  he  understood  an  interview  was  to  take  place  between  you  and  my 
self,  gave  me  liberty  to  make  use  of  his  name ;  and  on  our  meeting,  which 
was  a  few  days  after,  he  asked  me  if  I  had  made  use  of  his  name  and  what 
you  had  said,  an  impartial  statement  of  which  I  detailed  to  him.  As  to  the 
word,  coward,  I  think  it  as  applicable  to  yourself  as  any  one  I  know,  and 
I  shall  be  very  glad  when  an  opportunity  serves  to  know  in  what  manner 
you  give  your  anodines,  and  hope  you  will  take  in  payment  one  of  my 
most  moderate  cathartics. 

"  Yours  at  command, 

"  CHARLES  DICKINSON." 


Dickinson,  when  lie  wrote  this  letter,  was  on  the  eve  of  a 
flat-boat  voyage  to  New  Orleans.  By  the  time  it  reached 
General  Jackson's  hands,  he  had  started  down  the  river,  and 
was  miles  beyond  the  reach  of  a  reply.  The  tradition  in 
Tennessee  is,  that  all  the  way  to  New  Orleans  and  back  again 
he  spent  every  leisure  moment  in  practicing  with  the  pistol, 
expecting  on  his  return  to  be  called  out  by  General  Jackson. 
Whether  this  was  true  or  not,  Jackson  was  so  informed,  and 
believed  the  story. 


276  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

CHAP  TEH    XXIV. 

GENERAL    JACKSON     REPLIES     TO     MR.    SWANN. 

UPON  reading  Mr.  Swann's  communication  in  the  Impar 
tial  Review  and  Cumberland  Repository,  General  Jackson 
set  about  preparing  a  reply  that  should  overwhelm  and  crush 
his  youthful  antagonist.  He  seems  to  have  bestirred  him 
self  mightily.  Unable  to  complete  his  reply  in  one  week,  he 
inserted  a  note  in  Mr.  Eastings  newspaper  to  inform  an  ex 
pectant  public  that  in  the  next  issue  of  the  paper  he  would 
bestow  proper  attention  upon  a  late  communication  signed 
Thomas  Swann. 

This  reply  of  Jackson's  is  surcharged  with  the  very  essence 
of  biography,  and  is  curiously  characteristic  of  the  time  and 
scene.  If  it  were  not  so,  there  would  still  be  a  kind  of  neces 
sity  for  the  insertion  here  of  a  great  part  of  it ;  for  who  other 
wise  could  believe  that  grown  men  could  have  been  betrayed 
by  their  angry  feelings  into  such  boyish  behaviour  ?  Who 
could  suppose  that  consequences  so  deadly  could  come  of  a 
dispute  so  petty  ?  Who  could  believe  that  men  who,  at  other 
times  and  on  other  scenes,  appear  in  a  light  altogether  noble 
and  captivating,  could  ever  have  seriously  occupied  themselves 
with  an  affair  like  this  ?  And  who  could  imagine  that  such 
scenes  as  this  correspondence  reveals  ever  occurred  in  a  town 
which  has  grown  to  be  the  polite  city  of  Nashville  ? — a  city 
in  which  northern  vigor  and  southern  generosity  combine  to 
please  and  win  the  visitor. 

General  Jackson  thus  began  his  communication  : — 

"  Mr.  EASTIN  :  The  respect  I  owe  to  the  world  makes  it  necessary  that 
a  publication  under  the  signature  of  '  Thomas  Swann?'  in  your  Impartial 
Review  of  the  1st  instant,  should  be  noticed. 

"  To  impose  upon  the  public  attention,  through  the  medium  of  your 
useful  paper,  is  not  my  wish ;  but  as  Mr.  Swann  has  endeavored  to  exhibit 
to  the  public  eye  a  statement  of  his  case  and  character,  an  impartial  public 


1806.]      JACKSON     REPLIES     TO     MR.     SWANN.         277 

will  indulge  such  supplementary  remarks  as  may  be  necessary  to  complete 
the  caricature.  In  justice  to  Mr.  Swann,  and  lest  the  figure  when  finished 
may  appear  the  work  of  different  artists,  the  groundwork,  and  even  the 
various  materials  of  which  his  drawing  is  composed,  shall  be  carefully 
attended  to. 

"  Not,  however,  in  the  new-invented  style  of  support  adopted  by  his 
friends,  Mr.  N.  A.  McNairy  and  Samuel  Jackson — one  the  accredited  agent 
of  Mr.  Swann,  and  the  other  invoked  in  his  support.  To  a  perfect  under 
standing  of  the  case  of  the  complainant,  let  it  briefly  be  premised,  that  a 
course  race  was  made  between  Captain  Ervin  and  myself,  for  2,000  dollars 
in  cash  notes,  payable  at  the  day  of  the  race.  It  was  suggested  that  all 
Captain  Ervin's  notes  were  not  payable  precisely  at  the  day.  An  accom 
modation  was  proposed,  and  a  schedule  of  the  notes,  and  Charles  S.  Carson's 
verbal  assumpsit  (being  present)  was  offered  for  440  dollars,  or  thereabouts, 
which  was  accepted.  Mr.  Ervin  was  previously  informed  that  I  had  not 
any  power  over  one  half  of  the  bet,  as  Major  Verrell  and  Captain  Pryor, 
who  were  interested  in  the  other  half,  were  about  to  leave  the  country ; 
that,  one  half  must  be  payable  at  the  day  of  the  race,  the  other,  which 
respected  myself  and  Major  \V .  P.  Anderson,  was  not  material. 

11  Mr.  Charles  Dickinson  is  the  son-in-law  to  Captain  Ervin,  and  was 
interested  in  the  race,  as  it  is  understood.  This  race  was  afterward  drawn 
on  account  of  the  indisposition  of  Captain  Ervin's  horse,  upon  an  agree 
ment  to  pay  eight  hundred  dollars  as  a  forfeit.  The  payment  of  this  forfeit 
is  the  circumstance  which  gave  rise  to  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Swann — his  pub 
lication,  the  following  certificates,  and  the  subjoined  remarks.  The  fact  to 
be  decided  by  the  public  is,  whether  Mr.  Swann,  in  his  solicitude  to 
'  know  the  true  statement,'  though  unconcerned,  has  omitted,  in  his  asser 
tion  to  Mr.  Dickinson  and  the  public,  some  material  fact,  or,  in  other  words, 
whether  I  asserted  that  which  was  untrue  ? 

"  Mr.  Hutchings  has  truly  stated  the  assertion  to  which  I  have  uniformly 
adhered,  upon  which  Mr.  Swann  and  myself  were  at  issue ;  that  issue  has 
been  decided — whether  in  a  moral  manner,  casuists  must  determine — upon 
the  following  certificates  and  analysis : — 

AFFIDAVIT    OF    JOHN   HOTCHTNGS. 

"  Being  called  on  by  General  Andrew  Jackson  to  state  a  conversation 
that  took  place,  on  a  certain  Saturday,  in  his  store,  when  Thomas  Swann 
was  present,  with  myself  and  a  number  of  other  gentlemen,  relative  to  the 
payment  of  the  forfeit  by  Captain  Ervin  in  the  race  between  Plow  Boy 
and  Truxton,  do  certify  that  the  subject  was  introduced  by  Captain  P. 
Anderson,  who  was  stating  that,  on  that  occasion,  Captain  Ervin  had  pro 
duced  a  different  memorandum  or  schedule  of  notes  than  that  which  was 


278  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

produced  at  the  time  the  accommodation  of  the  race  took  place  in  Nash 
ville.  General  Jackson  replied. 

"  '  In  that  you  are  incorrect.  Instead  of  producing  a  different  sched 
ule,  he  produced  none  at  all.' 

"  Some  person  in  the  room,  perhaps  Mr.  Swann,  stepped  toward  the 
General,  and  said  he  had  heard  something  on  this  subject,  and  wished  to 
know  the  true  statement.  To  which  General  Jackson  observed  that  when 
Captain  Ervin  asked  him  up  to  Captain  Hoggatt's  to  receive  the  forfeit,  he, 
Captain  Ervin,  produced  to,  and  offered  him  notes,  none  of  which  were  due 
and  payable  at  the  time  ;  that  he,  the  General,  refused  to  receive  them  became 
one  half  were  not  due  and  payable  ;  his  reason  being  that  one  half  were  the 
property  of  Major  Vtrrel  and  Captain  Pry  or,  who  were  about  to  leave  the 
country  immediately.  Captain  Ervin  said  they  were  part  of  the  same  notes 
exhibited  in  the  schedule  at  Nashville.  The  General  then  a*kcd  Captain 
•Ervin  for  that  schedule.  He  put  his  hands  in  his  pockets,  and,  after  some 
search,  said  it  was  lost  or  mislaid,  but  that  Mr.  Dickinson  had  his  notes  and 
memorandum  or  schedule  (that  he  might  be  called  in),  out  of  which  the 
forfeit  could  be  paid.  Mr.  Dickinson  was  then  called  in,  produced  his  notes 
and  memorandum,  out  of  which,  with  an  order  on  King,  Carson  &  King, 
the  forfeit  was  paid.  When  the  General  had  finished  his  statement,  Mr. 
Anderson  said,  '  Then  I  have  taken  up  a  wrong  idea,  and  am  mistaken,'  or 
words  to  that  import,  and  the  subject  ended. 

"February  5th,  1806.  JOHN  HUTCHINGS." 

JOHN  COFFEE'S  AFFIDAVIT. 

"I  do  hereby  certify  that  on  or  about  the  12th  day  of  January  last  I 
was  in  company  with  General  Andrew  Jackson,  at  Nashville,  in  Mr. 
Winn's  tavern,  when  the  General  mentioned  to  me  that  some  communica 
tions  had  come  from  Mr.  Thomas  Swann  to  him  some  days  previous  to 
that,  in  consequence  of  which  perhaps  Mr.  Sivann,  from  the  pompous  airs 
he  put  on,  might  wish  to  say  something  on  the  subject.  He  requested  me 
to  say  to  Mr.  Swann,  who  was  then  in  the  house,  that  if  he  had  any  busi 
ness  with  him  (General  Jackson),  to  make  it  known  immediately,  as  he  was 
about  to  leave  Nashville.  I  complied  with  his  request.  Mr.  Swann 
replied  he  was  just  waiting  to  speak  with  the  General,  and  immediately 
stepped  up  to  him.  They  walked  out  of  the  house  together.  After  some 
minutes  General  Jackson  came  into  the  room  (Mr.  Swann  passed  by  the 
door),  and  observed  to  him,  as  he  passed  on,  and  to  the  gentlemen  in  the 
house,  that  if  Mr.  Swann  did  attempt  to  support  a  statement  made  in  a 
letter  addressed  from  Mr.  Swann  to  General  Jackson  (which  letter  the 
General  showed  the  company),  that  he  would  cane  him,  inasmuch  that 
the  statement  was  false,  that  the  author  could  not  be  a  gentleman,  and 


JS06.]      JACKSON     KEPLIES     TO     MR.      SWANN.       279 

that  such  would  be  the  treatment  he  deserved.  He  observed  he  would 
probably  be  in  town  the  next  day,  or  in  a  few  days,  as  his  business  would 
permit,  and  if  Mr.  Swann  put  on  any  airs  with  him  he  would  cane  him. 
He  then  left  town. 

"  The  General's  business  prevented  him  from  returning  to  Nashville  for 
some  days,  in  which  time  Mr.  Swann  addressed  another  letter,  by  his 
friend,  Mr.  Nathaniel  A.  McNairy,  to  the  General,  observing  that  the 
statements  made  were  substantially  correct,  etc.  The  General  then  was 
under  a  promise  to  cane  him  on  sight.  The  day  after  the  receipt  of  the 
last  letter  mentioned,  General  Jackson  and  myself  went  into  Nashville  to 
gether,  he,  under  a  determination  to  make  good  his  promise.  We  stopped 
at  Mr.  Winn's  tavern ;  had  not  been  in  the  house  but  a  few  minutes  when 
Mr.  Swann  came  walking  into  the  room.  As  soon  as  the  General  saw 
him  he  rose  from  his  chair,  observing,  he  was  glad  to  meet  with  him,  drew 
up  his  cane  and  gave  him  a  very  severe  blow,  which  appeared  to  stagger 
Mr.  Swann  forward.  The  General  gave  back,  as  I  supposed,  to  repeat  his 
blows,  came  in  contact  with  some  chairs  that  stood  behind  him,  and  fell 
backwards  over  them  towards  the  fire  or  hearth ;  but  before  he  was  down, 
the  gentlemen  present  caught  him  and  prevented  further  blows. 

"  Mr.  Swann  stepped  back,  put  his  hand  behind  him  under  his  coat,  as 
I  supposed,  to  draw  a  pistol.  Some  person  forbade  his  drawing.  The 
General  replied  to  the  company,  '  Let  him  draw  and  defend  himself.'  The 
General  put  his  hand  behind  him  and  drew  a  pistol.  The  company  all  im 
mediately  gave  back,  and  I  supposed  that  a  fire  would  immediately  take 
place.  But  when  Mr.  Swann  saw  the  General  draw  a  pistol,  he  withdrew 
his  hand,  observing  that  he  had  no  such  intention.  The  General  observed 
to  him,  that  such  was  the  treatment  he  deserved,  and  such  he  would  always 
give  young  men,  conducting  themselves  as  he  had  done ;  that  had  he  acted 
in  a  proper  manner  to  him,  he  would  have  treated  him  otherwise.  Mr. 
Swann  observed,  that  he  had  just  learned  that  he  (the  General)  was  come 
into  the  house,  and  that  he  had  come  down  stairs  to  speak  with  him  to 
pave  the  way  for  accommodation,  or  words  to  that  purpose.  Mr.  Swann 
then  withdrew  from  the  room. 

"  Some  short  time  after,  in  the  same  day,  I  was  called  on  to  hear  a  con 
versation  between  General  Jackson  and  Mr.  Nathaniel  A.  McNairy,  the 
friend  of  Mr.  Swann,  as  he  expressed  himself.  The  General  observed  to 
Mr.  McNairy,  that  he  knew  not  Mr.  Swann  as  a  gentleman;  that  he 
would  not  degrade  himself  by  accepting  his  challenge ;  that  he  was  a 
stranger  to  him ;  that  his  conduct  towards  him  had  been  ungentlemanly. 
Consequently,  he  would  not  have  any  correspondence  with  him ;  but  if 
Mr.  Swann  was  dissatisfied  with  him  from  the  treatment  he  had  received, 
that  he  would  accommodate  him  thus  far:  that  he  would  ride  with  him 
anywhere,  on  any  ground  he  would  name ;  he  would  meet  him  in  any 


280  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

sequestered  grove  lie  would  point  out ;  or  lie  would  see  him  in  any  way 
he  would  suggest,  through  him,  Mr.  McNairy.  He  further  observed,  that 
if  Mr.  Swann  had  any  friend,  that  was  known  to  be  a  ge-ntleman,  who 
would  step  forward,  in  his  behalf,  that  he  there  pledged  himself  to  meet 
him  on  any  gentlemanly  ground.  Mr.  McNairy  observed  that  his  own 
knowledge  of  Mr.  Swann  would  not  justify  his  supporting  him  as  a  gen 
tleman,  but  urged  that  a  court  of  honor  should  be  called ;  that  he  would 
produce  such  certificates  as  he  thought  would  support  his  friend.  General 
Jackson  referred  him  to  me  for  further  proceedings  on  the  occasion,  and 
withdrew. 

"  My  reply  to  Mr.  McNairy  was,  that  I  thought  that  gentleman's  honor 
and  feelings  were  too  delicate  to  arbitrate  ;  that,  under  the  existing  circum 
stances,  I  thought  the  General's  proposals  were  as  far  as  he  ought  to  go,  and 
that  further  satisfaction  he  might  not  expect.  He,  Mr.  McNairy,  declined 
accepting  the  proposition.  In  the  meantime  he  observed,  his  only  wish 
was  to  do  justice;  that  if  Mr.  Swann's papers  did  not  hold  him  out  to  be 
the  gentleman,  he  would  withdraw  himself  from  the  business.  He  said  it 
was  unfortunate  the  General  had  been  so  rash,  as  he  was  fully  convinced 
had  a  conversation  taken  place  between  the  parties,  before  the  General 
had  struck  Mr.  Swann,  that  the  thing  would  have  been  easily  settled  ;  in 
asmuch  as  he,  Mr.  MoNTairy,  and  Mr.  Swann,  on  mature  reflection,  had 
discovered  they  had  misconstrued  the  statements  that  were  the  original 
cause  of  dispute;  that  Mr.  Swann,  on  seeing  General  Jackson  ride  into 
town,  came  to  see  him  to  have  an  explanation.  Had  this  have  been  done, 
he  said,  a  reconciliation  would,  in  all  probability,  have  taken  place,  but  the 
General's  caning  him  was  now  the  only  cause  of  complaint. 

"  Some  hours  after,  in  the  same  day,  I  called  on  Mr.  McNairy,  to 
know  if  they  would  accede  to  the  proposition  made  him  by  General 
Jackson,  assuring  him  it  was  the  only  one  he  would  get.  He  declined, 
saying  he  supposed  the  thing  would  end  with  a  publication  in  Mr. 
Swann's  defense. 

"  Some  two  or  three  days  after,  when  in  Nashville  in  Mr.  Whin's  tav 
ern,  I  was  called  on  by  General  Jackson  to  hear  a  conversation  between 
himself  and  Mr.  McNairy,  when  General  Jackson  observed  to  Mr.  Mc- 
Nairy  that  he  had  learned  since  he  had  just  come  to  town,  that  McNairy 
had  reported,  and  caused  to  be  circulated,  that  when  General  Jackson 
refused  to  treat  Mr.  Swann  as  a  gentleman,  that  he,  Mr.  McNairy,  had 
observed  that  if  Mr.  Swann  was  not  known  as  a  gentleman,  that  he  was 
one,  and  would  meet  him  in  behalf  of  his  friend.  Mr.  McNairy  replied,  he 
had  never  said  it,  nor  wished  such  an  idea  to  go  out ;  that  he  had  said  if 
General  Jackson  had  a  wish  to  fight  him,  he  would  see  him ;  but  denied 
ever  offering  or  wishing  to  meet  him.  General  Jackson  said,  Major  Robert 
Purdy  was.  his  author,  and  he  would  call  on  him.  He  accordingly  called 


1806.]     JACKSON     REPLIES     TO     MR.    SWANN.  281 

Major  Purely,  who  asserted  firmly  that  Mr.  McNairy  had  made  such  a 
statement  to  him.  Mr.  McNairy  observed,  that  Major  Purdy  must  have 
misconstrued  his  meaning.  The  Major  replied,  there  could  be  no  miscon 
struction  ;  that  the  words  were  plain  and  construed  themselves.  Mr.  Mc- 
Nairy  observed,  he  never  intended  to  have  said  such  a  thing,  neither  did 
he  wish  such  an  idea  to  go  forth.  General  Jackson  observed  to  Mr.  Mc- 
Nairy,  that  '  too  much  had  been  said  on  the  subject,  and  for  the  future,  let 
there  be  no  misunderstanding.  I  now  pledge  you  my  word  and  my  honor, 
if  any  gentleman  on  a  standing  with  myself  will  come  forward  as  the  friend 
of  Mr.  Swann,  I  will  at  all  times  meet  him  on  any  gentlemanly  ground.' 
Thus  the  thing  rested,  so  far  as  the  same  came  to  my  knowledge. 

•'JOHN  COFFEE." 

STATEMENT  OF  ROBERT  HAYS  TENDING  TO  SHOW  THAT  MR.  SWANN  WAS  NOT 
A  GENTLEMAN. 

"  I  certify  that,  some  time  in  the  month  of  January  last,  Mr.  Samuel 
Jackson  stated  to  me  that  Mr.  Thomas  Swann  had  (without  being  asked) 
proffered  him  the  loan  of  some  cash,  and  that  he  would  furnish  him  with 
as  much  as  200  dollars  or  more,  if  he  wished  it.  Mr.  S.  Jackson  replied 
(after  thanking  him),  that  he  would  perhaps  call  on  him  in  a  few  days  for 
a  loan,  which  he  did  in  a  day  or  two  following,  and  observed  that  100  dol 
lars  would  answer  him.  Mr.  Thomas  Swann  observed  that  he  might  have 
it  at  any  time.  The  said  S.  Jackson  called  on  him  the  day  following  for  it, 
and  the  said  Swann  answered  he  had  loaned  it  out,  and  he  could  riot  fur 
nish  him  with  any.  The  said  S.  Jackson  further  observed  to  me,  that  he 
had  found  out  Mr.  Thomas  Swann,  and  that  he  had  not  acted  the  gentle 
man  with  him ;  to  which  I  observed,  if  he  acted  in  that  manner,  he  treated 
you  like  a  rascal,  and  said  6.  Jackson  made  answer,  he  did. 

"  ROBERT  HAYS. 
"  Haysborough,  February  3,  1806." 

LETTER    OF    ROBERT    BUTLER,  SHOWING   THAT    SAMUEL    JACKSON  THOUGHT  THAT 
MB.  SWANN   WAS   NOT    A    GENTLEMAN. 

"HAYSBOROUGH,  February  3d,  1806. 

"  GENERAL  ANDREW  JACKSON  : — Sir,  agreeable  to  your  request,  the  fol 
lowing  certificate  is  a  correct  statement  of  a  conversation  that  passed  from 
Mr.  Samuel  Jackson,  in  the  street  of  Haysborough,  in  my  presence  : — 

"  I  certify  that,  on  or  about  the  24th  day  of  January,  1806,  when 
standing  in  the  street  of  Haysborough,  with  two  or  three  gentlemen, 

Samuel  Jackson,  Esq.,  and  Mr. Lee  rode  up  to  the  place  where  we  were 

standing,  and  the  conversation  taking  a  turn  to  the  subject  of  General  An 
drew  Jackson's  and  Mr.  Thomas  Swann's  quarrel,  Samuel  Jackson,  Esq., 


282  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

did  state  in  my  presence,  that  Mr.  T.  Svvann  treated  him  very  rascally,  and 
commenced  the  statement  of  the  circumstances  ;  but  was  interrupted 
through  some  cause  unknown  to  me.  The  day  or  two  following,  the  said 
S.  Jackson  having  returned  to  Haysborough,  and  renewing  the  conversa 
tion,  stated  to  me,  that  Mr.  Thomas  Swann  had  proffered  him  the  loan  of 
some  money,  without  being  questioned  by  said  S.  Jackson  on  the  subject ; 
his  (Mr.  Samuel  Jackson's)  answer  was  (after  thanking  him),  if  he  really 
stood  in  need  qf  it,  he  would  call  on  him  for  100  dollars.  Said  S.  Jack 
son,  finding  necessity  for  making  the  application,  did  so  (on  the  day  follow 
ing),  and  was  answered  by  Mr.  Swann  that  he  had  loaned  his  money  out. 

"ROBERT  BUTLER." 

ROBERT   PURDY'S  STATEMENT. 

"  Some  time  since  Mr.  Thomas  Swann  and  myself  had  a  conversation 
respecting  Mr.  Samuel  Jackson.  Mr.  Swann  asked  me  if  I  did  not  suppose 
that  Mr.  Jackson  was  one  of  the  damnedest  rascals  on  earth,  and  observed 
he,  Jackson,  was  a  damned  rascal.  Some  further  conversation  took  place, 
which  I  can  not  recollect. 

"ROBERT  PORDY. 

"Februarys,  1806." 

GENERAL  JACKSON  RESUMES. 

"  Mr.  Swann,  in  his  letter  and  publication  in  your  paper  of  the  1st  in 
stant,  states  '  that  the  notes  offered  by  Captain  Joseph  Ervin  at  the  time 
of  paying  the  forfeit,  etc.,  were  different  from  those  General  Jackson 
agreed  to  receive.'  What  does  Dickinson,  his  informant,  state  ?  That  Swann 
said  a  different  list  was  produced.  Mr.  Swann  should  have  recollected  that 
the  list  of  notes  and  notes  offered  were  different.  The  first  was  produced 
when  an  accommodation  was  proposed  respecting  the  commutation  of  notes 
not  payable  for  those  that  were  ;  the  second,  to  the  payment  of  the  forfeit, 
a  fact  which  took  place  some  time  after  the  accommodation.  By  the  ac 
commodation,  one  half  was  payable ;  when  the  notes  were  offered,  no  list 
was  produced. 

"  How  does  Mr.  Swann  prove  the  position  he  has  taken,  that  different 
notes  from  the  list  were  produced  ? 

"1st.  By  his  own  assertion.  Mr.  Hutchings  was  present;  see  his  affi 
davit. 

"  2d.  Mr.  Charles  Dickinson's  information  is  referred  to ;  see  Mr.  Dick 
inson's  letter.  He  states  no  such  thing,  but  refers  to  a  different  list.  These 
two  correctative  informants  speak — one  of  different  notes  actually  offered,  the 
other  of  a  different  list  of  notes.  Happy  concordance !  These  two  gentle 
men  possess  the  key  of  consistency. 


1806.]      JACKSON     REPLIES     TO     MR.     SWANN.       283 

"  3d.  Mr.  Samuel  Jackson  is  next  referred  to.  Mr.  Swarm  has  not  been 
so  obliging  as  to  give  us  any  certificate,  nor  even  a  quotation  from  Mr. 
Jackson,  of  whom  he  was  so  polite  as  to  say  in  the  presence  of  Major 
Purely  thai  he  was  a  damned  rascal!  (an  appropriate  witness  for  Mr. 
Swann).  It  is  to  be  lamented  that  he  did  not,  but  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
Colonel  Hays'  and  Mr.  Robert  Butler's  certificates  may  ease  Mr.  Swann  of 
the  labor  of  vindicating  his  friend  Samuel  from  any  imputation.  No  doubt 
of  their  having  well  understood  each  other.  Mr.  Jackson  flatly  calls  Mr. 
Swann  a  rascal.  That  they  have  confidence  in  each  other  we  have  no 
doubt.  M r.  Jackson,  in  his  opinion  of  Mr.  Swann,  has  disclosed  the  ground 
on  which  this  good  understanding  rests.  Upon  principles  of  reason  and  of 
law,  a  man  can  not  discredit  his  own  witness. 

"  4th.  Mr.  Nathaniel  A.  McNairy  is  quoted  by  Mr.  Swann  in  support 
of  his  assertion  of  my  inconsistency.  This  young  man  has  industriously 
acquired  such  a  reputation  as  to  make  it  an  arduous  task  to  add  to  it.  But 
as  the  selected  supporter  of  Mr.  Swann  in  the  cause  of  consistency  and 
bravery,  it  would  be  doing  injustice  to  omit  him.  His  certificate,  which  is 
only  marked  by  a  quotation,  is  introduced  with  triumph  ;  his  /  without  date 
or  signature.  This  hopeful  youth,  who  forgets  to-day  what  he  has  uttered 
yesterday,  thinks  himself  secure ;  but  read  Messrs.  Baird  and  Purdy's  cer 
tificates  and  Mr.  Coffee's  affidavit,  and  see  what  credit  can  or  ought  to  be 
attached  to  the  statement  of  such  a  character. 

"  Mr.  Coffee  states  in  substance  that  I  would  cane  Mr.  Swann,  if  he 
attempted  to  support  the  statement  he  had  made;  that  he  understood  Mr. 
Swann  afterwards  wrote  me  that  the  statement  was  substantially  correct; 
that,  agreeable  to  promise,  I  did  cane  him ;  that  Mr.  Swann  said,  after  this 
chastisement,  that  he  had  wished  to  pave  the  way  for  an  explanation ;  that 
he  was  present  at  a  conversation  immediately  afterwards  between  Mr.  N. 
.A.  McNairy,  the  friend  of  Mr.  Swann,  and  myself,  when,  among  other 
things,  Mr.  McNairy  proposed  a  court  of  honor,  saying  at  the  same  time  that 
his  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Swann  would  not  justify  his  supporting  him  as  a 
gentleman ;  and  if  Mr.  Swann's  papers  did  not  support  that  character,  he 
would  withdraw  himself.  Note,  Mr.  Baird  and  Major  Purdy  state  in  sub 
stance  that  this  young  squire  of  high  renown  told  them,  he  observed  to  me 
that  if  Swann's  character  as  a  gentleman  was  not  known,  he  would  meet 
me.  Mr.  Coffee  further  states  that  this  friend  of  Mr.  Swann  expressed  much 
concern  that  this  affair  had  terminated  in  so  rash  a  manner ;  that  Mr. 
Swann  had  wished  to  see  me  for  the  purpose  of  an  explanation ;  that  Mr. 
Swann  and  himself  had  misconstrued  the  statement  made,  or,  in  other 
words,  found  out  that  they  were  in  an  error.  How  shameful  is  it,  then,  to 
persist  in  it. 

"  But  Mr.  McNairy  tells  Mr.  Coffee  that  the  caning  was  the  only  cause 
of  complaint.  Then  why  bring  the  points  of  veracity  and  consistency  into 


284  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806- 

view  in  the  publication  ?  When  Mr.  Coffee  called  on  Mr.  McNairy  to 
know  what  he  thought  of  my  proposition  for  redress,  observing  to  him  it 
was  all  he  might  expect,  he  declined  taking  any  further  part  in  the  affair, 
and  observed,  he  supposed  it  would  end  in  a  publication  in  Mr.  Swann's 
defense.  The  squire  had  recourse  to  the  same  method  on  a  former  occa 
sion,  and  what  effect  it  produced  'the  world  might  judge.'  Mr.  Coffee 
further  tells  us,  that  he  was  present  when  I  called  on  Mr.  McNairy  to 
know  if  he  had  made  use  of  the  language  stated  in  Major  Purdy's  certifi 
cate.  Here  the  valiant  squire's  memory  failed  him  ;  he  denies  that  he  evt-r 
said  it,  nor  '  did  he  wish  such  an  idea  to  go  forth.'  Major  Purdy,  being  con 
venient,  was  called  on.  He  told  the  squire  what,  he  had  asserted,  to  which 
he  answered,  Major  Purdy  must  have  misunderstood  him.  Modest  youth  ! 
But  the  Major  tells  him  he  could  not,  for  he  gave  his  own  words.  MISUN 
DERSTOOD  ?  How  ?  This  young  man  has  either  a  vicious  habit  of  deviat 
ing  from  the  truth,  or  a  natural  weakness  of  memory,  either  of  which  is 
equally  pernicious  to  society,  and  renders  him  a  fit  compeer  for  his  friend. 
It  is  difficult  to  find  an  appropriate  epithet  for  a  character  who  descends  to 
state  falsehoods,  where  the  honor  of  a  man  is  at  stake ;  where  truth  and 
justice  ought  to  be  the  order  of  the  day,  with  a  person  chosen  to  accom 
pany  another  on  the  field  of  honor ;  and,  in  many  cases,  where  integrity  is 
the  only  shield  of  innocence.  However,  the  squire's  conduct  is  in  perfect 
unison  with  a  recent  act  on  the  field  of  honor ;  he  fired  before  the  word ; 
it  was  declared  to  be  an  accident;  and  this  prevarication,  or  whatever  you 
may  please  to  call  it,  I  suppose  he  will  declare  to  be  another.  Combine 
these  two  acts  with  the  whole  military  feats  of  this  young  squire,  and  his 
deviations  from  the  path  of  candor  and  truth  in  civil  life.  He  is  in  my  opin 
ion  (and  I  think  the  world  will  agree  with  me)  deprived  of  that  privilege 
in  society  which  the  gentleman  and  man  of  honor  ought,  in  all  cases,  in 
justice  to  obtain. 

"  Thus,  reader,  I  have  endeavored  to  finish  the  picture.  The  ground 
work  only  appears  to  be  conceived  by  the  author  of  the  publication.  The 
materials  existing  in  the  statements  of  his  witnesses  may  with  propriety 
be  said  to  have  been  selected  by  the  author.  They  are,  however,  the 
natural  result  of  those  chosen  by  himself;  an  application  of  such  as  were 
offered  have  only  been  made.  It  is  true  that  the  drapery  sometimes  ex 
hibits  black  instead  of  white ;  but  this  the  reader  will  excuse  when  he  con 
siders  that,  consistently  with  the  plan  I  adopted,  no  other  material  could 
be  had.  A  little  more  indulgence  whilst  a  few  other  parts  of  the  publica 
tion  are  noticed. 

"  Mr.  Swann  states  in  substance  he  \vas  attacked  in  a  defenseless  situ 
ation,  and  off  his  guard ;  read  the  certificates  of  Messrs.  Coffee  and  Clai- 
borne.  Judge  for  yourselves.  His  own  declaration  shows  that  he  came 
into  tho  room,  knowing  I  was  there,  for  the  purpose  (to  make  use  of  his 


1SOC.  j        JACKSON     REPLIES    TO    MR.     SWANN.        285 

own  words)  '  to  pave  the  way  for  an  accommodation!  These  gentlemen 
state  that  Mr.  Swann  was  about  drawing  a  pistol !  Why  did  he  not  do 
,  it  ?  Any  man  can  answer  this  question.  Recollect,  reader,  his  boast  of 
a  certain  death  in  case  I  attempted  to  cane  him.  He  had  previously  every 
assurance  that  I  would  not  treat  him  like  the  gentleman,  but  that  a  caning 
would  be  given  him  in  return  for  a  challenge. 

"  Here  then  the  hero  steps  forward  with  all  the  ostensible  bravery  of  a 
duelist.  The  faithful  promise  was  executed.  And  notwithstanding  his 
gasconading  expressions,  '  that  no  power  terrestrial  should  prevent  the  settled 
purpose  of  his  soul'  he  shrunk  at  the  sight  of  a  pistol,  and  dropped  his 
hands  for  quarter,  although  one  of  them  was  placed  on,  and  in  the  act  of 
drawing  his  own.  Is  this  like  the  man  of  courage  who  said,  '  that  instant 
death  should  he  the  consequence  T  Or  is  it  like  the  coward  when  his  settled 
purpose  fails  him  ?  When  true  bravery  is  assailed  or  attacked  in  any  way, 
it  will  show  to  the  world  its  genuineness.  Yes,  as  much  bravery  is  neces 
sary  in  the  act  of  self-defense  in  all  cases  as  in  the  act  of  dueling — see  Mr. 
Coffee's  affidavit. 

"Mr.  Swann,  on  this  occasion,  has  impertinently  and  inconsistently  ob 
truded  himself.  He  has  acted  the  puppet  and  lying  valet  for  a  worthless, 
drunken,  blackguard  scoundrel,  who  is  now  at  war  with,  and  flatly  contra 
dicts,  and  gives  Mr.  Swann  the  lie.  Here  the  reader  can  compare  Charles 
Dickinson's  letter  with  Mr.  Swann's  publication. 

"  Mr.  Swann  states  his  desire  to  obtain  satisfaction ;  '  but  an  ingenious 
evasion  had  been  discovered.'  How  does  this  agree  with  the  evidence  of 
Mr.  Coffee  and  Major  Purdy  ?  He  is  told  he  can  have  satisfaction  in  any 
manner,  in  any  way  or  situation,  but  that  I  will  not  degrade  myself  by 
the  acceptance  of  a  challenge  from  a  stranger  whose  acts  and  conduct  had 
been  inconsistent  with  that  of  the  gentleman — from  a  man  who  was  capa 
ble  of  acting  and  writing  to  me  in  the  manner  Mr.  Swann  had  done  in  his 
letters  of  the  3d  and  12th  of  January. 

"  But  Mr.  Swann  complains  I  would  not  acknowledge  him  a  gentle 
man,  and  calls  for  proof  of  the  contrary.  If;  therefore,  I  have  not  shown 
sufficiently  that  he  has  no  just  claim  to  the  appellation  of  a  gentleman,  let 
him  bring  forth  his  letters  introductory,  or  certificates,  so  much  talked  ofl 
I  was  badly  advised  the  day  I  chastised  Mr.  Swann,  if  those  vouchers 
were  not  given  by  men  in  Virginia  of  known  immoral  and  disreputable 
character. 

"  Is  it  worth  while  before  I  take  my  everlasting  farewell  of  this  group, 
to  notice  the  last  falsehood  asserted  by  Mr.  Swann  in  his  publication  ? 
The  fact  is,  I  am  only  thirty-nine  years  of  age,  and  if  G-od  should  permit 
me  to  live  thirty-nine  years  more,  I  will  never  again  be  caught  before  the 
public  in  competition  with  Mr.  Swann  or  any  of  his  auxiliaries. 

"  February  10th,  1806.  ANDREW  JACKSON." 

VOL.  I. — 19 


286  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806, 

CHAPTER     XXV. 

DUEL     BETWEEN     COFFEE     AND     McNAIRY. 

DICKINSON  being  still  absent  from  Tennessee,  the  insult 
ing  language  applied  to  him  by  G-eneral  Jackson  passed,  for 
the  time,  without  notice.  But  young  McNairy,  the  "  squire 
of  high  renown/'  was  prompt  to  respond  to  that  part  of  Jack 
son's  communication  which  related  to  him.  The  Impartial 
Review ',  of  the  next  week,  contained  the  following  sarcastic 
epistle  from  that  young  gentleman  : — 

"  MR.  EASTJN  : — I  would  presume,  from  a  view  of  the  famous  G-eneral  s 
answer  to  Mr.  Swann's  publication  in  your  last  number,  that  part  of  the 
verdict  to  be  expected  from  the  public  would  be  that  the  brave  General 
is  much  more  pleased  in  shedding  bushels  of  ink  than  one  ounce  of  blood,  pro 
vided  there  is  an  equal  chance  that  that  one  ounce  should  be  extracted  from 
his  own  dear  carcase.  But  give  him  an  advantage,  and  he  is  as  brave  as 
Julius  Csesar;  such  as  this :  give  him  a  large  brace  of  rifle-barreled  pistols, 
and  he  will  race  a  superannuated  governor  on  the  road  as  he  travels,  or  he 
will  meet  Mr.  Swann  in  some  sequestered  spot,  that  the  alert  General  may 
obtain  some  dishonorable  advantage  when  no  eye  can  see  him ;  or  let  him 
have  a  pistol,  and  he  will  shoot  at  a  man  that  has  none,  and  drive  him  off 
to  Kentucky.  God  knows  for  what  offense.  /  apprehend  the  General 
knows,  too. 

11  Fie,  fie  upon  it !  General !  Come  out.  You  can  make  boys  fight  at 
six  feet  distance ;  risk  yourself  for  once  on  equal  terms,  at  least  at  ten 
yards.  The  risk  is  not  great  when  you  consider  that  your  opponent  will 
be  under  the  impression  that  he  has  come  in  contact  with  the  brave,  mag 
nanimous,  invincible  and  honorable  Major  General  Andrew  Jackson,  of  Ten 
nessee,  but  not  commander  of  the  navies. 

11  Let  this  suffice  as  a  relish  for  the  gentleman  General  until  I  shall  have 
time  to  answer  the  charges  exhibited  by  the  braggadocio  General ;  espe 
cially  as  it  regards  his  honorable  certitier,  Mr.  Coffee,  who  was  under  the 
necessity  of  being  sworn,  because  he  is  not  only  honorable,  but  religious. 
The  sagacious  General  would  fain  turn  the  public  eye  from  the  case  of  Mr. 
Swann  and  himself.  Mr.  Swann  has  a  right  to  reply  ;  after  that,  the  pure 
General  and  myself  will  join  issue ;  or  I  rather  expect  the  General  will 


1806.]         DUEL     OF     COFFEE     AND     MCNAIRY.         287 

demur,  for  all  he  has  got  to  do  is  to  say  a  man  is  no  gentleman.  Perhaps 
he  is  right ;  the  community  can  not  well  spare  such  men.  In  due  time  the 
public  shall  have  all  the  documents  in  my  power  to  afford,  and  I  wish  them, 
if  they  please,  to  suspend  an  opinion  as  far  as  regards  the  statement  made 
in  his  publication  against  me.  It  is  none  but  the  cowardly  who  are  always 
the  cause  of  such  disputes  coming  before  the  public ;  they  ought  to  be 
transacted  in  conclave ;  but  the  General  knows  the  more  noise  there  is 
made,  the  less  danger  there  is  of  his  sacred  person. 

"Nashville,  February  15th,-  1806.  NATHANIEL  A.  McNAiRY. 

"N.  B. — The  people  of  the  western  country  may  think  who  are  gen 
tlemen  and  who  are  not,  but  it  is  reserved  for  the  well  born  General  to 
decide  that  point.  N.  A.  McN." 

The  gauntlet  thus  thrown  down  was  taken  up  by  Mr. 
John  Coffee,  and  a  duel  was  the  immediate  result.  The 
events  that  transpired  at  this  duel  had  an  influence  upon  the 
more  serious  combat  that  followed  it.  Coffee's  second  on  this 
occasion  was  Major  Kobert  Purdy,  who  thus  relates  what 
occurred  on  the  ground  : — 

"  On  the  1st  day  of  March,  1806,  Mr.  N.  A.  McNairy  met  Mr.  Coffee  in 
the  State  of  Kentucky,  agreeable  to  promise,  to  render  Mr.  Coffee  satisfac 
tion  for  an  insult  given  by  him  (McNairy)  in  his  publication  in  Mr.  Eastin's 
Impartial  Review  of  the  22d  ultimo;  Mr.  McNairy  accompanied  by  his 
friend,  Mr.  George  Bell,  and  Mr.  Coffee  by  myself. 

"  Mr.  Bell  being  requested  by  me  to  namefbr  his  friend  the  distance  and 
mode  of  fighting,  Mr.  Bell  observed,  '  the  usual  distance,  thirty  feet,'  which 
was  agreed  to.  Mr.  Bell  pointed  out  the  mode,  which  is  as  follows :  first, 
the  word,  '  Make  Ready ;'  at  which  time  the  parties  were  to  raise  their 
pistols ;  then,  distinctly  count,  '  one,  two,  three,'  and  then  the  word  '  Fire- ;' 
at  which  time  the  parties  were  to  fire  ;  a  snap. or  flash  to  be  considered  as 
a  fire.  Should  either  of  the  pistols  go  off  before  the  word  l  make  ready'  is 
given,  it  is  to  be  considered  as  an  accident,  and  at  liberty  to  load  again 
previous  to  the  other's  -filing.  Should  either  of  the  parties  fire  after  the 
word  is  given,  '  Make  Ready,'  and  before  the  word  '  Fire,'  the  other  is  to 
fire  at  the  word,  should  he  think  proper,  or  reserve  his  fire  ;  all  of  which 
was  agreed  to  by  me. 

"  The  ground  was  then  laid  off  by  Mr.  Bell  and  myself,  and  we  then 
threw  up  who  was  to  give  the  word.  I  won  it.  We  threw  up  for  the 
choice  of  positions.  I  won  it.  Mr.  Bell  observed  to  me,  that  if  either  of 
the  gentlemen  fired  before  the  word,  it  would  be  a  hard  case  to  shoot  them. 
I  answered,  it  would  be  equally  disagreeable  to  me ;  but  should  either  of  them 


288  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

fire  before  the  word,  they  would  be  disgraced,  which  they  must  well  know. 
We  then  proceeded  to  load  the  pistols,  and  called  the  gentlemen  up,  to 
whom  the  stipulations  agreed  to  were  read  over  by  me,  and  fully  explained, 
and  both  the  gentlemen  said  they  understood  them  perfectly.  I  then  cau 
tioned  them  to-be  careful  not  to  fire  before  the  word. 

"  The  gentlemen  then  took  their  positions,  and  I  repeated  to  them  once 
or  twice  how  the  word  would  be  given,  and  cautioned  them  again  not  to 
lire  before  the  word.  Mr.  Bell  and  myself  took  our  positions,  with  a 
loaded  pistol  in  our  hands.  I  proceeded  to  give  the  word,  '  Make  Ready,' 
at  which  time  both  the  gentlemen  raised  their  pistols,  and  appeared  per 
fectly  calm  and  deliberate.  I  then  proceeded  to  count  '  one/  and  about 
the  word  '  two/  Mr.  MeNairy  fired,  and  shot  Mr.  Coffee  through  the 
thigh.  Mr.  Coffee  fired  immediately  after;  but  I  am  clearly  of  opinion 
it  was  in  consequence  of  the  wound  he  had  received,  that  extracted 
his  fire. 

"  I  immediately  walked  up  to  Mr.  McNairy  with  my  pistol  cocked,  and 
observed  to  him  (McNairy)  that  he  ought  to  be  shot;  and  also  observed  to 
him,  that  was  it  not  for  the  agreement  between  Mr.  Bell  and  rnyselij  I 
would  shoot  him.  Mr.  McNairy  observed,  it  was  an  accident.  I  replied 
to  him,  that  accidents  of  this  kind  on  the  field  were  inadmissible.  Mr.  Bell 
observed,  that  Air.  Coffee  had  also  fired  before  the  word.  Mr.  Coffee 
answered  Mr.  Bell,  that  he  was  wounded  through  the  thigh,  which  caused 
his  pistol  to  go  off'.  Mr.  Bell  admitted  it  might  be  the  case.  Mr.  Coffee 
then  advanced  towards  Mr.  McNairy,  and  said  to  him,  '  G-d  d — n  you,  this 
is  the  second  time  you  have  been  guilty  of  the  same  crime'  I  told  Mr. 
Coffee  to  desist ;  that  this  was  an  improper  place  to  have  words.  Mr.  Bell 
observed  that  they  were  ready  to  take  another  fire.  I  replied,  that  I  would 
not  suffer  Mr.  Coffee  to  take  another  fire;  that  he  had  no  right  to  do  sa, 
owing  to  the  conduct  of  Mr.  McNairy's  firing  before  the  word.  Mr.  Bell 
then  applied  to  me  for  a  compromise.  1  then  observed  that  Mr.  Coffee 
would  not,  unless  Mr.  McNairy  would  disavow  every  thing  he  had  said  of 
Mr.  Coliee  in  the  public  prints,  and  suffer  this  day's  transaction  to  be 
published,  which  I  supposed  Air.  McNairy  would  not  do.  Mr.  Bell  also  ob 
served,  that  Mr.  McNairy  would  not.  Mr.  McNairy  and  myself  had  some 
conversation  on  the  subject  of  a  compromise  between  Mr.  Coffee  and 
himself!  I  answered  him  in  the  same  way  I  did  Mr.  Bell.  Mr.  McNairy 
observed  to  me,  that  he  always  had  a  good  opinion  of  Mr.  Coffee,  and 
that  Coffee  had  been  dragged  into  the  business  as  well  as  himself.  We  then 
retired." 

Mr.  George  Bell,  the  second  of  McNaiiy,  also  published 
a  statement  not  materially  differing  from  the  above,  except 
with  regard  to  what  followed  the  accidental  fire.  "Mr 


1806.]  DICKINSON      RETURNS  289 

McNairy,"  said  Bell,  "  appeared  to  be  very  much  hurt  at  his 
firing  before  the  word,  and  insisted  on  me  to  tell  Mr.  Coffee 
that  he  would  lay  down  his  pistol,  and  that  he  (Coffee)  might 
load  his  pistol,  and  stand  at  the  proper  distance,  and  have 
one  shot  at  him,  if  that  would  satisfy  him.  I  told  Mr.  Mc 
Nairy  that  I  did  not  think  Mr.  Coffee  would  do  that,  and  this 
I  think,  I  mentioned  to  Major  Purdy,  and  he  also  observed 
that  Mr.  Coffee  would  not  do  it.  As  it  has  always  been  my 
wish  to  see  men  who  have  once  been  in  habits  of  intimacy,  as 
Mr.  McNairy  and  Mr.  Coffee  had  been,  if  possible,  to  become 
so  again,  I  then  mentioned  to  Major  Purdy,  if  we  could  not 
bring  about  a  compromise  between  Mr.  Coffee  and  Mr.  Mc 
Nairy,  at  least,  that  they  should  be  on  speaking  terms,  and 
do  business  together  as  gentlemen.  Major  Purdy  observed 
that  we  could  not,  except  Mr.  McNairy  would  disavow  every 
thing  that  he  had  said  of  Mr.  Coffee  in  the  public  prints.  I 
then  told  Major  Purdy  that  Mr.  McNairy  would  never  do 
that.  We  then  parted." 

A  peppery  note  from  Major  Purdy  concluded  this  business  : 
"  I  have  been  informed,"  said  Purdy,  "  by  Mr.  G-eorge  Bell, 
that  a  report  has  been  in  circulation,  that  when  Mr.  Coffee 
and  Mr.  McNairy  were  on  the  field  of  honor,  that  Mr.  Bell 
had  a  great  deal  of  difficulty  to  keep  me  from  shooting  Mr. 
McNairy,  and  that  said  McNairy  had  begged  his  life,  and 
given  a  certificate  of  his  improper  conduct.  Whoever  stated 
such  conduct  as  respects  Mr.  McNairy,  is  a  liar  and  rascal." 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

DICKINSON     RETURNS. 

To  General  Jackson's  communication  Mr.  Swann  pub 
lished  a  reply  of  prodigious  length,  the  main  object  of  which 
was  to  prove,  by  certificates  and  affidavits,  that  Thomas 
Swann  was  a  gentleman,  and  General  Jackson  a  coward. 


290  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

Among  the  eminent  Virginians  who  certified  to  Mr.  Swann's 
gentlemanliness  were  Edmund  Randolph  and  Edward  Car- 
rington.  Mr.  Randolph  said:  "I 'commit  to  paper  with 
great  pleasure  what  I  know  and  what  I  believe  with  respect 
to  Thomas  Swann,  Esq.  He  studied  the  law  under  my  ad 
vice  ;  and  manifested  the  most  steady  attention  to  it  during 
the  time.  I  had  no  hesitation  in  anticipating  that  he  would 
become  an  able  lawyer  ;  and  I  can  with  truth  assert  the  ac 
knowledged  purity  of  his  character." 

Eleven  other  men  of  known  character  testified  in  similar 
terms  to  Mr.  Swann's  entire  respectability. 

Mr.  Swann  concluded  his  long  communication  with  the 
following  remarks :  "  The  renowned  General's  famous  publi 
cation  is  fraught  with  rancorous  abuse,  and  slanderous  de 
famation  ;  and  contains  charges  which  are  not  only  unfounded, 
but  entirely  irrelevant  to  the  point  at  issue  ;  one  of  which 
made  by  Samuel  Jackson  (a  character  which  perhaps  bears 
as  great  an  affinity  to  him  in  disposition  as  in  name),  although 
amply  in  my  power  to  disprove,  I  conceive  it  would  be  too 
condescending  to  stoop  to  a  serious  refutation  of,  when  1 
reflect  it  was  made  by  a  man  whose  conduct  has  rendered 
him  unworthy  the  notice  of  a  gentleman.  I  shall  now  con 
clude  this  address  to  the  public  by  assuring  General  Andrew 
Jackson  (to  use  a  favorite  expression  of  his  own)  c  that  I 
shall  at  all  times  hold  myself  answerable  for  any  of  my  con 
duct/  " 

Mr.  Swann  might  have  spared  himself  the  labor  of  pre  - 
paring  his  voluminous  reply,  for  while  it  was  yet  in  the  com 
positor's  hands,  events  were  transpiring  which  turned  the 
attention  of  the  public  away  from  the  subordinate  belligerents, 
and  fixed  it  upon  the  principals.  Dickinson  was  at  home 
again.  He  reached  Nashville  about  the  20th  of  May. 

On  the  22d  of  May,  General  Thomas  Overton  rode  out 
to  General  Jackson's  store  at  Clover  Bottom  with  the  in 
formation  that  Dickinson  had  written  a  most  scurrilous  attack 
upon  Jackson,  which  he  had  placed  in  Mr.  Eastin's  hands  for 
publication,  and  it  would  appear  in  the  n  xt  number  of  the 


1806.]  DICKINSON     RETURNS.  291 

paper.  Jackson  asked  Overton  to  hasten  back  to  town,  get  a 
sight  of  the  article,  bring  him  an  account  of  its  contents,  and 
come  prepared  to  give  an  opinion  as  to  whether  it  was  an 
article  requiring  "notice."  Overton  complied  with  the  re 
quest. 

"  It's  a  piece  that  can't  be  passed  over,"  reported  Overton. 
"  General  Jackson,  you  must  challenge  him." 

To  which  Jackson  replied,  "  General,  this  is  an  affair  of 
life  and  death.  I'll  take  the  responsibility  myself.  I'll  see 
the  piece  and  form  my  own  judgment  of  it." 

He  mounted  his  horse,  and  rode  to  the  office  of  the  Im 
partial  Review.  The  article  was  shown  him  as  afterward 
published.  The  following  is  a  copy  of  it  :. — 

"  MR.  EASTIN  : — In  looking  over  the  tenth  number  of  your  Impartial 
Review  I  discover  that  a  certain  Andrew  Jackson  has  endeavored  to  induce 
the  public  to  believe  that  some  inconsistency  had  been  attempted  by  me 
relative  to  his  dispute  with  Mr.  Thomas  Swann.  My  letter  to  Andrew 
Jackson,  as  published  by  Mr.  Joseph  Ervin,  isr  I  consider,,  a  sufficient  an 
swer  with  any  impartial  person. 

"I  should  have  never  condescended  to  have  taken  any  notice  of  An 
drew  Jackson  or  his  scurrilous  publication  had  it  not  been  promised  by  Mr. 
John  Ervin,  when  he  published  my  letter  at  length,  which  Mr.  Jackson, 
for  some  cause  unknown  but  to  himself,  had  not  the  generosity  to  have 
published  but  in  part. 

"  I  shall  take  notice  but  of  those  parts  of  his  publication  which  are 
intended  for  myself.  The  first  is  in  his  publication  of  the  8th  of  February, 
which  reads  thus :  '  Mr.  Charles  Dickinson's  information  is  referred  to ;  see 
Mr.  Dickinson's  letter.  He  states  no  such  thing,  but  refers  to  a  different 
list.  These  two  correctative  informants  speak,  one  of  different  notes  actu 
ally  offered,  the  other  of  a  different  list  of  notes..  Happy  concordance ! 
These  two  gentlemen  possess  the  key  of  consistency.' 

"  I  have  no  such  accommodating  disposition  as  to  compare  what  I 
intend  to  offer  to  the  public  with  that  of  any  witness  whatever,  and,  if  it 
should  differ,  to  correct  in  such  manner  as  to  correspond.  What  any  per 
son  offers  for  publication,  if  called  on,  I  think  it  is  his  duty  to  swear  to. 
Andrew  Jackson  has  had  several  disputes,  which  have  appeared  in  different 
prints  of  this  State,  and,  if  his  mode  of  publishing  his  thoughts  on  his  dif 
ferent  quarrels  is  such  as  to  alter  his  publications  to  make  them  answer 
with  those  of  his  witnesses,  I  can  only  exclaim,  0  tempora  !  0  mores  I 

"  Another  part  of  his  publication,  of  the  same  date,  is  as  follows  :  '  He,' 


292  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

alluding  to  Mr  Thomas  Swann,  '  has  acted  the  puppet  and  lying  valet  for 
a  worthless,  drunken,  blackguard  scoundrel,'  etc.,  etc.  Should  Andrew 
Jackson  have  intended  these  epithets  for  me,  I  declare  him,  notwithstand 
ing  he  is  a  Major  General  of  the  militia  of  Mero  district,  to  be  a  worthless 
scoundrel,  '  a  poltroon  and  a  coward' — a  man  who,  by  frivolous  and  evasive 
pretexts,  avoided  giving  the  satisfaction  which  was  due  to  a  gentleman 
whom  he  had  injured.  This  has  prevented  me  from  calling  on  him  in  the 
manner  I  should  otherwise  have  done,  for  I  am  well  convinced  that  he  is 
too  great  a  coward  to  administer  any  of  those  anodines  he  promised  me  in 
his  letter  to  Mr.  Swann.  His  excuse  I  anticipate,  that  his  anodines  have 
been  in  such  demand  since  I  left  Tennessee  that  he  is  out  of  the  necessary 
ingredients  to  mix  them.  I  expect  to  leave  Nashville,  the  first  of  next 
week,  for  Maryland.  Yours,  etc., 

"May  21st,  1806.  CHARLES  DICKINSON."* 

One  glance  at  this  article  revealed  to  General  Jackson  the 
nature  of  its  contents.  He  hesitated  not  a  moment.  An 
hour  later  General  Overton  placed  in  Dickinson's  hands  the 
following  letter  : — 

"CHARLES  DICKINSON,  SIR: — Your  conduct  and  expressions  relative  to 
me  of  late  have  been  of  such  a  nature  and  so  insulting  that  it  requires  and 
shall  have  my  notice.  Insult  may  be  given  by  men,  and  of  such  a  kind 
that  they  must  be  noticed  and  treated  with  the  respect  due  a  gentleman, 
although  (in  the  present  instance)  you  do  not  merit  it. 

"  You  have,  to  disturb  my  quiet,  industriously  excited  Thomas  Swann 
to  quarrel  with  me,  which  involved  the  peace  and  harmony  of  society  for 
awhile. 

"You,  on  the  10th  of  January,  wrote  me  a  very  insulting  letter,  left 
this  country,  caused  this  letter  to  be  delivered  after  you  had  been  gone 
some  days,  and  viewing  yourself  in  safety  from  the  contempt  I  held  you, 
have  now  in  the  press  a  piece  more  replete  with  blackguard  abuse  than  any 
of  your  other  productions.  You  are  pleased  to  .state  that  you  would  have 
noticed  me  in  a  different  way,  but  my  cowardice  would  have  found  a  pre 
text  to  evade  that  satisfaction  if  it  had  been  called  for,  etc.,  etc. 

"I  hope,  sir,  your  courage  will  be  an  ample  security  to  me  that  I  will 
obtain  speedily  that  satisfaction  due  me  for  the  insults  offered,  and  in  the 
way  my  friend  who  hands  you  this  will  point  out.  He  waits  upon  you  for 
that  purpose,  and  with  your  friend  will  enter  into  immediate  arrangements 
for  this  purpose.  I  am,  etc.,  ANDREW  JACKSON." 

*  From  the  Impartial  Review  of  May  24th.  1806. 


1806.]  DICKINSON     RET-URNS.  293 

Before  the  day  closed,  Jackson  received,  through  Dr.  Han 
son  Catlet,  a  reply  to  his  challenge.  "  Your  note  of  this  morn 
ing,"  wrote  Dickinson,  "  is  received,  and  your  request  shall  be 
gratified.  My  friend  who  hands  you  this  will  make  the  neces 
sary  arrangements." 

The  seconds  immediately  conferred,  agreed  upon  the  time 
and  place,  of  meeting,  and  drew  up  their  agreement  in  writ 
ing  : — "  On  Friday,  the  30th  instant,  we  agree  to  meet  at 
Harrison's  Mills,  on  Ked  river,  in  Logan  county,  State  of 
Kentucky,  for  the  purpose  of  settling  an  affair  of  honor  be 
tween  General  Andrew  Jackson  and  Charles  Dickinson,  Esq. 
Further  arrangements  to  be  made.  It  is  understood  that  the 
meeting  will  be  at  the  hour  of  seven  in  the  morning." 

Upon  reading  this  over  to  his  principal,  Overton  found 
him  most  averse  to  postponing  the  meeting  for  a  whole  week. 
Catlet  had  given  as  a  reason  for  the  delay  that  Dickinson  had 
not  a  pair  of  dueling  pistols,  and  it  would  require  time  to  pro 
cure  a  pair.  This  seemed  a  mere  subterfuge  to  Jackson,  who 
would,  if  he  could,  have  fought  that  night.  So  he  prompted 
his  second  to  write  the  following  note  to  Dr.  Catlet :  "  Sir, 
the  affair  of  honor  to  be  settled  between  my  friend  General 
Jackson  and  Charles  Dickinson,  Esq.,  is  wished  not  to  be 
postponed  until  the  30th  instant  (say  Friday)  agreeable  to 
your  time  appointed,  if  it  can  be  done  sooner.  In  order  that 
no  inconvenience  on  your  part  may  occur,  if  you  can  not  ob 
tain  pistols,  we  pledge  ourselves  to  give  you  choice  of  ours. 
Let  me  hear  from  you  immediately." 

No  answer  came  that  night,  nor  early  the  next  morning. 
The  impetuous  Jackson  urged  Overton  to  write  a  second  note 
to  his  adversary's  second  :  "  Sir,  I  pressed  you  in  favor  of 
my  friend  General  Jackson  for  immediate  satisfaction  for  the 
injury  that  his  feelings  had  received  from  a  publication  of 
Charles  Dickinson.  You  replied  that  it  might  not  be  in  your 
power  to  obtain  pistols.  In  my  note  of  yesterday,  in  order  to 
remove  any  obstacles  as  it  respected  pistols,  I  agreed  to  give 
you  choice  of  ours,  the  other  we  pledged  ourselves  to  make 
use  of.  For  God's  sake,  let  this  business  be  brought  to  an 


294  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

issue  immediately,  as  I  can  not  see,  after  the  publication,  why 
Mr.  Dickinson  should  wish  to  put  it  off  till  Friday." 

This  produced  a  brief  and  barely  civil  note  from  Dr.  Cat- 
let :  "  Sir,  I  have  received  your  notes  of  yesterday  and  this 
date,  and  can  only  answer  that  it  will  not  now  be  convenient 
to  alter  the  day  from  that  already  agreed  upon." 

This  settled  the  point  in  dispute.  On  the  same  day  the 
seconds  met  again,  and  agreed  upon  the  following  :  "  It  is 
agreed  that  the  distance  shall  be  twenty-four  feet  ;  the  par 
ties  to  stand  facing  each  other,  with  their  pistols  down  per 
pendicularly.  When  they  are  ready,  the  single  word,  FIRE, 
to  be  given  ;  at  which  they  are  to  fire  as  soon  as  they  please. 
Should  either  fire  before  the  word  is  given,  we  pledge  our 
selves  to  shoot  him  down  instantly.  The  person  to  give  the 
word  to  be  determined  by  lot,  as  also  the  choice  of  position. 
We  mutually  agree  that  the  above  regulations  shall  be  ob 
served  in  the  affair  of  honor  depending  between  General  An 
drew  Jackson  and  Charles  Dickinson,  Esq." 

This  was  Saturday,  May  24th,  1806.  The  duel  was  not 
to  take  place  till  the  Friday  following.  The  quarrel  thus 
far  had  excited  intense  interest  in  Nashville,  and  the  succes 
sive  numbers  of  the  Impartial  Review  had  been  read  with 
avidity.  The  coming  duel  was  no  secret,  though  the  time 
and  place  were  not  known  to  any  but  the  friends  of  the  par 
ties.  Bets,  I  am  informed,  were  laid  upon  the  result  of  the 
meeting,  the  odds  being  against  Jackson.  Dickinson  himself 
is  said  to  have  bet  five  hundred  dollars  that  he  would  bring 
his  antagonist  down  at  the  first  fire.  Another  informant 
says  three  thousand.  But  I  have  small  belief  in  any  of  the 
ill  things  said  of  this  man. 


1806.]  T  II  E      D  U  E  L  .  295 

CHAPTER     XXVII. 

THE     DUEL. 

THE  place  appointed  for  the  meeting  was  a  long  day's 
ride  from  Nashville.  Thursday  morning,  before  the  dawn  of 
day,  Dickinson  stole  from  the  side  of  his  young  and  beautiful 
wife,  and  began  silently  to  prepare  for  the  journey.  She 
awoke,  and  asked  him  why  he  was  up  so  early.  He  replied, 
that  he  had  business  in  Kentucky  across  the  Bed  river,  but 
it  would  not  detain  him  long.  Before  leaving  the  room,  he 
went  up  to  his  wife,  kissed  her  with  peculiar  tenderness,  and 
said  : 

"  Good  bye,  darling  ;  I  shall  be  sure  to  be  at  home  to 
morrow  night/' 

He  mounted  his  horse  and  repaired  to  the  rendezvous, 
where  his  second  and  half  a  dozen  of  the  gay  blades  of  Nash 
ville  were  waiting  to  escort  him  on  his  journey.  Away  they 
rode,  in  the  highest  spirits,  as  though  they  were  upon  a  party 
of  pleasure.  Indeed,  they  made  a  party  of  pleasure  of  it. 
When  they  stopped  for  rest  or  refreshment,  Dickinson  is  said 
to  have  amused  the  company  by  displaying  his  wonderful 
skill  with  the  pistol.  Once,  at  a  distance  of  twenty-four 
feet,  he  fired  four  balls,  each  at  the  word  of  command,  into  a 
space  that  could  be  covered  by  a  silver  dollar.  Several  times 
he  cut  a  string  with  his  bullet  from  the  same  distance.  It  is 
said  that  he  left  a  severed  string  hanging  near  a  tavern,  and 
said  to  the  landlord  as  he  rode  away, 

"  If  General  Jackson  comes  along  this  road,  show  him 
that !" 

It  is  also  said,  that  he  laid  a  wager  of  five  hundred  dollars 
that  he  would  hit  his  antagonist  within  half  an  inch  of  a  cer 
tain  button  on  his  coat.  I  neither  believe  nor  deny  one  of 
these  stories  ;  but  so  many  of  the  same  kind  are  still  told  in 
the  neighborhood,  that  it  is  safe  to  conclude  that,  on  this 


296  LIFE     OF      ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

fatal  ride,  Dickinson  did  affect  much  of  that  recklessness  of 
manner  which  was  once  supposed  to  be  an  evidence  of  high 
courage.     The  party  went  frisking  and  galloping  along  the 
lonely  forest  roads,  making  short  cuts  that  cautious  travelers 
never  attempted,  dashing  across  creeks  and  rivers,  and  mak 
ing  the  woods  ring  and  echo  with  their  shouts  and  laughter. 
Very  different  was  the  demeanor  of  General  Jackson  and 
the  party  that  accompanied  him.     General  Thomas  Overton, 
an  old  revolutionary  soldier,  versed  in  the  science,  and  famil 
iar  with  the  practice  of  dueling,  had  reflected  deeply  upon  the 
conditions  of  the  coming  combat,  with  the  view  to  conclude 
upon  the  tactics  most  likely  to  save  his  friend  from  Dickin 
son's  unerring  bullet.     For  this  duel  was  not  to  be  the  amus 
ing  mockery  that  some  modern  duels  have  been.     This  duel 
was  to  be  real.     It  was  to  be  an  affair  in  which  each  man 
was  to  strive  with  his  utmost  skill  to  effect  the  purpose  of  the 
occasion — disable  his  antagonist  and  save  his  own  life.     As 
the  principal  and  the  second  rode  apart  from  the  rest,  they 
discussed  all  the  chances  and  probabilities  with  the  single 
aim  to  decide  upon  a  course  which  should  result  in  the  dis 
abling  of  Dickinson  and  the  saving  of  Jackson.     The  mode  of 
fighting  which  had  been  agreed  upon  was  somewhat  peculiar. 
The  pistols  were  to  be  held  downward  until  the  word  was 
given  to  fire ;  then  each  man  .was  to  fire  as  soon  as  lie  pleased. 
With  such  an  arrangement,  it  was  scarcely  possible  that  both 
the  pistols  should  be  discharged  at  the  same  moment.     There 
was  a  chance,  even,  that  by  extreme  quickness  of  movement, 
one  man  could  bring  down  his  antagonist  without  himself 
receiving  a  shot.     The  question  anxiously  discussed  between 
Jackson  and  Overton  was  this  :  Shall  we  try  to  get  the  first 
shot,  or  shall  we  permit  Dickinson  to  have  it  ?    They  agreed, 
at  length,  that  it  would  be  decidedly  better  to  let  Dickinson 
fire  first.     In*  the  first  place,  Dickinson,  like  all  miraculous 
shots,  required  no  time  to  take  aim,  and  would  have  a  far 
better  chance  than  Jackson  in  a  quick  shot,  even  if  both  fired 
at  once.     And  in  spite  of  anything  Jackson  could  do,  Dick 
inson  would  be  almost  sure  to  get  the  first  fire.     Moreover, 


1806.]  THE     DUEL.  297 

Jackson  was  certain  he  would  be  hit ;  and  he  was  unwilling 
to  subject  his  own  aim  to  the  chance  of  its  being  totally  de 
stroyed  by  the  shock  of  the  blow.  For  Jackson  was  resolved 
on  hitting  Dickinson.  His  feelings  toward  his  adversary  were 
embittered  by  what  he  had  heard  of  his  public  practicings  and 
boastful  wagers.  "  I  should  have  hit  him,  if  he  had  shot  me 
through  the  brain/'  said  Jackson  once.  In  pleasant  discourse 
of  this  kind,  the  two  men  wiled  away  the  hours  of  the  long 
journey. 

A  tavern  kept  by  one  David  Miller,  somewhat  noted  in 
the  neighborhood,  stood  on  the  banks  of  the  Red  river,  near 
the  ground  appointed  for  the  duel.  Late  in  the  afternoon  of 
Thursday,  the  29th  of  May,  the  inmates  of  this  tavern  were 
surprised  by  the  arrival  of  a  party  of  seven  or  eight  horsemen. 
Jacob  Smith,  then  employed  by  Miller  as  an  overseer,  but  now 
himself  a  planter  in  the  vicinity,  was  standing  before  the 
house  when  this  unexpected  company  rode  up.  One  of  these 
horsemen  asked  him  if  they  could  be  accommodated  with 
lodgings  for  the  night.  They  could.  The  party  dismounted, 
gave  their  horses  to  the  attendant  negroes,  and  entered  the 
tavern.  No  sooner  had  they  done  so,  than  honest  Jacob  was 
perplexed  by  the  arrival  of  a  second  cavalcade — Dickinson 
and  his  friends,  who  also  asked  for  lodgings.  The  manager 
told  them  the  house  was  full ;  but  that  he  never  turned 
travelers  away,  and  if  they  chose  to  remain,  he  would'  do  the 
best  he  could  for  them.  Dickinson  then  asked  where  was 
the  next  house  of  entertainment.  He  was  directed  to  a  house 
two  miles  lower  down  the  river,  kept  by  William  Harrison. 
The  house  is  still  standing.  The  room  in  which  Dickinson 
slept  that  night,  and  slept  the  night  following,  is  the  one  now 
used  by  the  occupants  as  a  dining-room. 

Jackson  ate  heartily  at  supper  that  night,  conversing  in  a 
lively,  pleasant  manner,  and  smoked  his  evening  pipe  as  usual. 
Jacob  Smith  remembers  being  exceedingly  pleased  with  his 
guest,  and,  on  learning  the  cause  of  his  visit,  heartily  wish 
ing  him  a  safe  deliverance. 

Before  breakfast  on  the  next  morning  the  whole  party 


298  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

mounted  and  rode  down  the  road  that  wound  close  along  the 
picturesque  banks  of  the  stream. 

About  the  same  hour,  the  overseer  and  his  gang  of  negroes 
went  to  the  fields  to  begin  their  daily  toil ;  he,  longing  to 
venture  within  sight  of  what  he  knew  was  about  to  take  place. 

The  horsemen  rode  about  a  mile  along  the  river  ;  then 
turned  down  toward  the  river  to  a  point  on  the  bank  where 
they  had  expected  to  find  a  ferryman.  No  ferryman  appear 
ing,  Jackson  spurred  his  horse  into  the  stream  and  dashed 
across,  followed  by  all  his  party.  They  rode  into  the  poplar 
forest,  two  hundred  yards  or  less,  to  a  spot  near  the  center  of 
a  level  platform  or  river  bottom,  then  covered  with  forest, 
now  smiling  with  cultivated  fields.  The  horsemen  halted  and 
dismounted  just  before  reaching  the  appointed  place.  Jack 
son,  Overton,  and  a  surgeon  who  had  come  with  them  from 
home,  walked  on  together,  and  the  rest  led  their  horses  a 
short  distance  in  an  opposite  direction. 

"  How  do  you  feel  about  it  now,  G-eneral  ?"  asked  one  of 
the  party,  as  Jackson  turned  to  go. 

"  Oh,  all  right/'  replied  Jackson,  gayly  ;  "I  shall  wing 
him,  never  fear/' 

Dickinson's  second  won  the  choice  of  position,  and  Jack 
son's  the  office  of  giving  the  word.  The  astute  Overton  con 
sidered  this  giving  of  the  word  a  matter  of  great  importance, 
and  he  had  already  determined  how  he  would  give  it,  if  the 
lot  fell  to  him.  The  eight  paces  were  measured  off,  and  the 
men  placed.  Both  were  perfectly  collected.  All  the  polite 
nesses  of  such  occasions  were  very  strictly  and  elegantly 
performed.  Jackson  was  dressed  in  a  loose  frock-coat,  but 
toned  carelessly  over  his  chest,  and  concealing  in  some  degree 
the  extreme  slenderness  of  his  figure.  Dickinson  was  the 
younger  and  handsomer  man  of  the  two.  But  Jackson's  tall, 
erect  figure,  and  the  still  intensity  of  his  demeanor,  it  is  said, 
gave  him  a  most  superior  and  commanding  air,  as  he  stood 
under  the  tall  poplars  on  this  bright  May  morning,  silently 
awaiting  the  moment  of  doom. 

"  Are  you  ready  ?"  said  Overton. 


1806. j  THE    DUEL.  299 

"  I  am  ready/'  replied  Dickinson. 

"  I  am  ready,"  said  Jackson. 

The  words  were  no  sooner  pronounced  than  Overton,  with 
a  sudden  shout,  cried,  using  his  old-country  pronunciation, 
"FERE!" 

Dickinson  raised  his  pistol  quickly  and  fired.  Overton, 
who  was  looking  with  anxiety  and  dread  at  Jackson,  saw  a 
puff  of  dust  fly  from  the  breast  of  his  coat,  and  saw  him 
raise  his  left  arm  and  place  it  tightly  across  his  chest.  He  is 
surely  hit,  thought  Overton,  and  in  a  bad  place,  too  ;  but 
no  ;  he  does  not  fall.  Erect  and  grim  as  Fate  he  stood,  his 
teeth  clenched,  raising  his  pistol.  Overton  glanced  at  Dick 
inson.  Amazed  at  the  unwonted  failure  of  his  aim,  and  ap 
parently  appalled  at  the  awful  figure  and  face  before  him, 
Dickinson  had  unconsciously  recoiled  a  pace  or  two. 

"  Great  God  !"  he  faltered,  "  have  I  missed  him  ?" 

"  Back  to  the  MARK,  sir  !"  shrieked  Overton,  with  his 
hand  upon  his  pistol. 

Dickinson  recovered  his  composure,  stepped  forward  to 
the  peg,  and  stood  with  his  eyes  averted  from  his  antagonist. 
All  this  was  the  work  of  a  moment,  though  it  requires  many 
words  to  tell  it. 

General  Jackson  took  deliberate  aim,  and  pulled  the  trig 
ger.  The  pistol  neither  snapped  nor  went  off.  He  looked  at 
the  trigger,  and  discovered  that  it  had  stopped  at  half  cock. 
He  drew  it  back  to  its  place,  and  took  aim  a  second  time. 
He  fired.  -Dickinson's  face  blanched  ;  he  reeled  ;  his  friends 
rushed  toward  him,  caught  him  in  their  arms,  and  gently 
seated  him  on  the  ground,  leaning  against  a  bush.  His  trow- 
sers  reddened.  They  stripped  off  his  clothes.  The  blood  was 
gushing  from  his  side  in  a  torrent  And,  alas  !  here  is  the 
ball,  not  near  the  wound,  but  above  the  opposite  hip,  just 
under  the  skin.  The  ball  had  passed  through 'the  body,  be 
low  the  ribs.  Such  a  wound  could  not  but  be  fatal. 

Overton  went  forward  and  learned  the  condition  of  the 
wounded  man.  Kejoining  his  principal,  he  said,  "  He  won't 
want  anything  more  of  you,  General,"  and  conducted  him 


300  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

from  the  ground.  They  had  gone  a  hundred  yards,  Over- 
ton  walking  on  one  side  of  Jackson,  the  surgeon  on  the  other, 
and  neither  speaking  a  word,  when  the  surgeon  observed 
that  one  of  Jackson's  shoes  was  full  of  blood. 

"  My  God  !  General  Jackson,  are  you  hit  ?"  he  ex 
claimed,  pointing  to  the  blood. 

"  Oh  !  I  believe,"  replied  Jackson,  "  that  he  has  pinked 
me  a  little.  Let's  look  at  it.  But  say  nothing  about  it 
there"  pointing  to  the  house. 

He  opened  his  coat.  Dickinson's  aim  had  been  perfect. 
He  had  sent  the  ball  precisely  where  he  supposed  Jackson's 
heart  was  beating.  But  the  thinness  of  his  body  and  the 
looseness  of  his  coat  combining  to  deceive  Dickinson,  the  ball 
had  only  broken  a  rib  or  two,  and  raked  the  breast-bone.  It 
was  a  somewhat  painful,  bad-looking  wound,  but  neither 
severe  nor  dangerous,  and  he  was  able  to  ride  to  the  tavern 
without  much  inconvenience.  Upon  approaching  the  house, 
he  went  up  to  one  of  the  negro  women  who  was  churning, 
and  asked  her  if  the  butter  had  come.  She  said  it  was  just 
coming.  He  asked  for  some  buttermilk.  While  she  was  get 
ting  it  for  him,  she  observed  him  furtively  open  his  coat  and 
look  within  it.  She  saw  that  his  shirt  was  soaked  with 
blood,  and  she  stood  gazing  in  blank  horror  at  the  sight,  dip 
per  in  hand.  He  caught  her  eye,  and  hastily  buttoned  his 
coat  again.  She  dipped  out  a  quart  measure  full  of  butter 
milk,  and  gave  it  to  him.  He  drank  it  off  at  a  draught ; 
then  went  in,  took  off  his  coat,  and  had  his  wound  carefully 
examined  and  dressed.  That  done,  he  dispatched  one  of  his 
retinue  to  Dr.  Catlett,  to  inquire  respecting  the  condition  of 
Dickinson,  and  to  say  that  the  surgeon  attending  himself 
would  be  glad  to  contribute  his  aid  toward  Mr.  Dickinson's 
relief.  Polite  reply  was  returned  that  Mr.  Dickinson's  case 
was  past  surgery.  In  the  course  of  the  day,  General  Jack 
son  sent  a  bottle  of  wine  to  Dr.  Catlett  for  the  use  of  his 
patient. 

But  there  was  one  gratification  which  Jackson  could  not, 
even  in  such  circumstances,  grant  him.  A  very  old  friend  of 


1806.]  THE      DUEL.  301 

General  Jackson  writes  to  me  thus  :  "  Although  the  General 
had  been  wounded,  he  did  not  desire  it  should  be  known 
until  he  had  left  the  neighborhood,  and  had  therefore  con 
cealed  it  at  first  from  his  own  friends.  His  reason  for  this, 
as  he  once  stated  to  me,  was,  that  as  Dickinson  considered 
himself  the  best  shot  in  the  world,  and  was  certain  of  killing 
him  at  the  first  fire,  lie  did  not  want  him  to  have  the  gratifi 
cation  even  of  knowing  that  he  had  touched,  him." 

Poor  Dickinson  bled  to  death.  The  flowing  of  blood  was 
stanched,  but  could  not  be  stopped.  He  was  conveyed  to  the 
house  in  which  he  had  passed  the  night,  and  placed  upon  a 
mattrass,  which  was  soon  drenched  with  blood.  He  suffered 
extreme  agony,  and  uttered  horrible  cries  all  that  long  day. 
At  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  he  suddenly  asked  why  they 
had  put  out  the  lights.  The  doctor  knew  then  that  the  end 
was  at  hand  ;  that  the  wife,  who  had  been  sent  for  in  the 
morning,  would  not  arrive  in  time  to  close  her  husband's 
eyes.  He  died  five  minutes  after,  cursing,  it  is  said,  with 
his  last  breath,  the  ball  that  had  entered  his  body.  The 
poor  wife  hurried  away  on  hearing  that  her  husband  was 
"  dangerously  wounded,"  and  met,  as  she  rode  toward  the 
scene  of  the  duel,  a  procession  of  silent  horsemen  escort 
ing  a  rough  emigrant  wagon  that  contained  her  husband's 
remains.* 

The  news  created  in  Nashville  the  most  profound  sensa 
tion.  "  On  Tuesday  evening  (afternoon)  last/'  said  the  Im 
partial  Review  of  the  following  week,  "  the  remains  of  Mr. 
Charles  Dickinson  were  committed  to  the  grave,  at  the  resi 
dence  of  Mr.  Joseph  Ervin,  attended  by  a  large  number  of 
citizens  of  Nashville  and  its  neighborhood.  There  have  been 
few  occasions  on  which  stronger  impressions  of  sorrow  or  tes- 

*  This  account  of  the  duel  was  compiled  from  many  sources,  verbal  and 
printed;  but  most  of  the  incidents  which  occurred  on  the  field  I  received  from  an 
old  friend  of  General  Jackson,  who  heard  them  related,  and  saw  them  acted,  by 
General  Overton.  In  narrating  some  of  the  minor  events,  I  have  had  to  choose 
between  conflicting  statements ;  yet  I  feel  confident  that  this  account  contains 
no  error  of  importance;  no  error  affecting  the  moral  quality  of  the  principal 
acts. 

VOL.  I. — 20 


302  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

timonies  of  greater  respect  were  evinced  than  on  the  one  we 
have  the  unwelcome  task  to  record.  In  the  prime  of  life,  and 
blessed  in  domestic  circumstances  with  almost  every  valuable 
enjoyment,  he  fell  a  victim  to  the  barbarous  and  pernicious 
practice  of  dueling.  By  his  untimely  fate  the  community  is 
deprived  of  an  amiable  man  and  a  virtuous  citizen.  His 
friends  will  long  lament  with  particular  sensibility  the  de 
plorable  event.  Mr.  Dickinson  was  a  native  of  Maryland, 
where  he  was  highly  valued  by  the  discriminating  and  good  ; 
and  those  who  knew  him  best  respected  him  most.  With  a 
consort  that  has  to  bear  with  this,  the  severest  of  afflictions, 
and  an  infant  child,  his  friends  and  acquaintances  will  cor 
dially  sympathize.  Their  loss  is  above  calculation.  May 
Heaven  assuage  their  anguish  by  administering  such  con 
solations  as  are  beyond  the  power  of  human  accident  or 
change." 

But  the  matter  did  not  rest  here.  Charles  Dickinson  had 
many  friends  in  Nashville,  and  Andrew  Jackson  many  ene 
mies.  The  events  preceding,  and  the  circumstances  attending 
the  duel  were  such  as  to  excite  horror  and  disgust  in  many 
minds.  An  informal  meeting  of  citizens  was  held,  who  could 
hit  upon  no  better  way  of  expressing  their  feelings  than  send 
ing  the  following  memorial  to  the  proprietors  of  the  Impartial 
Review  : — "  The  subscribers,  citizens  of  Nashville  and  its 
vicinity,  respectfully  request  Mr.  Bradford  and  Mr.  Eastin  to 
put  the  next  number  of  their  paper  in  mourning  as  a  tribute 
of  respect  for  the  memory,  and  regret  for  the  untimely  death 
of  Mr.  Charles  Dickinson." 

Seventy-three  names,  many  of  which  were  of  the  high 
est  respectability,  were  appended  to  this  document.  Mr. 
Eastin  had  no  hesitation  in  promising  to  comply  with  the 
request. 

Upon  his  couch  at  the  Hermitage  General  Jackson  heard 
of  this  movement.  With  his  usual  promptitude,  he  dispatched 
to  the  editor  the  following  letter  : — "  MR.  EASTIN  : — I  am 
informed  that  at  the  request  of  sundry  citizens  of  Nash 
ville  and  vicinity,  you  are  about  to  dress  your  paper  in 


1806.]  T  H  E     D  U  E  L  .  303 

mourning  'as  a  tribute  of  respect  for  the  memory  and  re 
gret  for  the  untimely  death  of  Charles  Dickinson/  Your 
paper  is  the  public  vehicle,  and  is  always  taken  as  the 
public  will,  unless  the  contrary  appears.  Presuming  that 
the  public  is  not  in  mourning  for  this  event ,  in  justice  to 
that  public,  it  is  only  fair  and  right  to  set  forth  the  names 
of  those  citizens  who  have  made  the  request.  The  thing  is 
so  novel  that  names  ought  to  appear  that  the  public  might 
judge  whether  the  true  motives  of  the  signers  were  '  a  tribute 
of  respect  for  the  deceased/  or  something  else  that  at  first 
sight  does  not  appear." 

The  editor,  with  equal  complaisance  and  ingenuity,  con 
trived  to  oblige  all  parties.  He  placed  his  paper  in  mourning, 
he  published  the  memorial,  he  published  General  Jackson's 
letter,  and  he  added  to  the  whole  the  following  remarks  : — 
"  In  answer  to  the  request  of  General  Jackson  I  can  only 
observe  that,  previously,  the  request  of  some  of  the  citizens 
of  Nashville  and  its  vicinity  had  been  put  to  type,  and  as 
soon  as  it  had  transpired  that  the  above  request  had  been 
made,  a  number  of  the  subscribers,  to  the  amount  of  twenty- 
six,*  called  and  erased  their  names.  Always  willing  to  sup 
port,  by  my  acts,  the  title  of  my  paper — always  willing  to 
attend  to  the  request  of  any  portion  of  our  citizens  when  they 
will  take  the  responsibility  on  themselves,  induced  me  to 
comply  with  the  petition  of  those  requesting  citizens,  and 
place  my  paper  in  mourning.  Impartiality  induces  me  also 
to  attend  to  the  request  of  General  Jackson." 

*  The  following  were  the  names  actually  published :  Hanson  Catlett,  Thomas 
B.  Wagaman,  Thomas  G-.  Watkins,  Boyd  McNairy,  John  McNairy,  William  Tait, 
Duncan  Robertson,  John  H.  Smith,  Thomas  Williamson,  William  T.  Lewis,  John 
Nichols,  Thomas  C.  Clark.  Daney  McCraw,  John  Maclin,  Jeremiah  Scales,  Timo 
thy  Demonbrum,  Elisha  Johnston,  James  P.  Downes,  William  B.  Robertson, 
William  Lytle,  D.  Moor,  Robert  Stoteart,  J.  Gordau,  J.  B.  Craighead,  P.  Bourn, 
Alexander  Craighead,  John  Read,  Robert  P.  Currin,  Roger  B.  Sappington. 
Roger  B.  Currey,  Thomas  Swann,  Ernst  Benior,  William  Y.  Probert,  C.  Wheston, 
J.  Baird,  Hervey  Lane,  Samuel  Finney,  William  Black,  R.  Hewett,  Thomas 
Ramsey,  Nathaniel  McCairys,  Thomas  Napier,  Robert  Hughes,  James  King, 
Robert  Bell,  Felix  Robertson. 


304  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

A  week  or  two  later,  Captain  Ervin,  the  father-in-law  of 
the  unfortunate  Dickinson,  published  a  brief  recapitulation 
of  the  quarrel  from  the  beginning,  incorporating  with  his 
article  a  final  statement  by  Mr.  Thomas  Swann.  Swann 
exculpated  Dickinson  wholly.  "  I  do  avow/'  said  he,  "  that 
neither  Mr.  Dickinson  nor  any  other  person  urged  me  for 
ward  to  quarrel  with  Jackson."  He  asserted  in  the  most 
solemn  manner  that  every  thing  had  occurred  just  as  in  the 
published  correspondence  and  affidavits  it  had  appeared  to 
occur.  He  admitted,  however,  that  there  was  enmity  be 
tween  Jackson  and  Dickinson  before  his  own  quarrel  with 
Jackson  began. 

Captain  Ervin  objected  to  Jackson's  conduct  in  the  field. 
"It  may  not,"  said  he,  "be  improper  to  inquire  whether 
General  Jackson  had  a  right,  according  to  the  laws  of  duel 
ing,  to  recock  his  pistol  after  having  snapped  it  ?  It  is  said 
it  was  agreed  that  a  snap  should  not  be  considered  a  fire. 
Granted  ;  but  was  it  not  also  agreed  that  nothing  which  was 
not  committed  to  writing  should  be  considered  as  binding  or 
having  effect  ?  A  snap  not  to  be  considered  as  a  fire  was  "not 
committed  to  writing.  Consequently,  it  was  not  one  of  the 
stipulations  in  the  agreement  ;  neither  was  it  warranted  by 
the  usual  practice  ;  yet  such  was  the  cruel  fate  of  the  unfor 
tunate  Dickinson.  He  gallantly  maintained  his  ground,  and 
fell  a  victim  to  this  unguarded,  illiberal  and  unjust  advan 
tage.  Peace  be  to  his  inanes  !  respect  to  his  memory,  which 
will  be  ever  dear  to  his  friend,  Joseph  Ervin." 

To  this  the  seconds  replied  in  a  joint  card,  certifying  that 
the  duel  was  conducted  fairly,  according  to  the  conditions 
agreed  upon  beforehand. 

General  Jackson's  wound  proved  to  be  more  severe  and 
troublesome  than  was  at  first  anticipated.  It  was  nearly 
a  month  before  he  could  move  about  without  inconvenience, 
and  when  the  wound  healed,  it  healed  falsely  ;  that  is,  some 
of  the  viscera  were  slightly  displaced,  and  so  remained. 
Twenty  years  after,  this  forgotten  wound  forced  itself  upon 
his  remembrance,  and  kept  itself  there  for  many  a  year. 


1806.]  THE     DUEL.  305 

It  was  Dickinson's  bullet  that  killed  Andrew  Jackson  at 
last. 

The  reader  is  now  in  possession  of  all  the  attainable  infor 
mation  which  could  assist  him  in  forming  a  judgment  of  this 
sad,  this  deplorable,  this  shocking,  this  wicked  affair.  Un 
fortunately,  the  evidence  which  makes  against  Jackson  is 
indubitable,  while  the  extenuating  circumstances  rest  upon 
tradition  only.  It  is  evident  that  he  was  deeply  embittered 
against  Dickinson  before  the  affair  with  Swann  began.  No 
man  is  competent  to  pronounce  decisively  upon  Jackson's 
conduct  in  this  business,  who  does  not  know  precisely  and 
completely  the  cause  of  that  original  enmity.  A  very  slight 
observation  of  life  is  sufficient  to  show  that  the  party  most 
injured  is  the  one  that  of  ten  appears  to  be  most  in  the  wrong. 
A  chronic  grinding  Wrong  extorts,  at  length,  the  wrathful 
word  or  the  avenging  blow.  The  by-stander  hears  the  impre 
cation,  sees  the  stroke,  and  knowing  nothing  that  has  gone 
before,  condemns  the  victim  and  pities  the  guilty.  That 
Jackson  was  singularly  morbid  upon  the  subject  of  his  pecu 
liar  marriage,  we  shall  often  observe. 

It  is  not  true,  as  has  been  alleged,  that  this  duel  did  not 
affect  General  Jackson's  popularity  in  Tennessee.  It  followed 
quick  upon  his  feud  with  Governor  Sevier  ;  and  both  quar 
rels  told  against  him  in  many  quarters  of  the  State.  And 
though  there  were  large  numbers  whom  the  nerve  and  cour 
age  which  he  had  displayed  in  the  duel  blinded  to  all  consider 
ations  of  civilization  and  morality,  yet  it  is  certain  that 
at  no  time  between  the  years  1806  and  1812,  could  General 
Jackson  have  been  elected  to  any  office  in  Tennessee  that 
required  a  majority  of  the  voters  of  the  whole  State.  Al 
most  any  well-informed  Tennesseean,  old  enough  to  remem 
ber  those  years,  will  support  me  in  this  assertion.  Beyond 
the  circle  of  his  own  friends,  which  was  large,  there  existed  a 
very  general  impression  that  he  was  a  violent,  arbitrary, 
overbearing,  passionate  man  ;  but  that  it  was  safest  not  to 
mention  the  circumstance.  Of  his  own  circle,  however,  he 


306  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

was  as  much  the  idol  then  as  he  was  when  he  was  his  country's 
idol.* 

*  The  following,  cut  from  a  leading  Democratic  organ  in  1859,  is  a  good  ex 
ample  of  the  way  in  which  a  popular  hero's  most  doubtful  actions  are  made  to 
minister  to  his  popularity : — 

JACKSON  AND  DICKINSON. 

"Jackson  settled  at  Nashville  between  the  years  1790  and  1800,  and  began 
the  practice  of  the  law.  Dickinson  was  already  there,  following  the  same  profes 
sion.  He  was  a  great  duelist,  having  killed  several  in  duels,  and  almost  certain 
to  kill  the  first  fire.  His  mode  of  firing  was  very  uncommon.  Instead  of  raising 
his  pistol  from  his  side  to  fire  at  the  word,  he  would  bring  it  down  from  above 
until  he  got  it  to  the  proper  level,  and  then  fire.  All  of  the  merchants  in  Nash 
ville  had  Dickinson  retained  in  their  behalf,  and  he  being  the  only  lawyer  there 
until  General  Jackson  came,  no  redress  could  be  obtained  by  the  opposite  side. 
General  Jackson  refused  to  be  retained  by  these  merchants  to  the  exclusion  of  all 
other  parties.  The  consequence  was,  that  he  issued  fifty  writs  at  the  first  term 
of  the  court  at  Nashville. 

"  He  issued  writs  against  the  merchants,  who  until  then  had  gone  scott  free. 
This  irritated  them,  and  they  (being  desirous  of  getting  General  Jackson  out  of 
the  way)  incited  Dickinson  to  provoke  a  duel.  He  began  by  acting  on  trials 
offensively  to  the  General. 

"  He  remonstrated  with  Dickinson,  and  plainly  informed  him  that  he  would 
not  submit  to  such  disrespectful  treatment. 

"  Dickinson  persisted,  and  General  Jackson  challenged  him.  The  time  and 
place  for  the  combat  were  fixed  upon,  and  the  news  spread  for  miles  around. 
There  were  at  least  two  hundred  people  on  the  ground,  and  bets  were  made  as 
if  it  were  a  horse  race. 

"  Dickinson  himself  bet  that  he  would  kill  Jackson  on  the  first  fire.  Dickin 
son  fired  first,  and  his  ball  hit  General  Jackson  on  the  right  pap,  and  peeled  his 
breast.  He  had  a  callous  lump  there  until  the  day  of  his  death.  As  soon  as  the 
smoke  of  Dickinson's  pistol  blew  away,  and  he  saw  General  Jackson  still  stand 
ing,  he  exclaimed :  '  Haven't  I  killed  the  damned  rascal  ?'  General  Jackson  told 
General  Eaton  that  until  then  he  meant  to  give  him  his  life ;  but  on  hearing 
these  words,  he  raised  his  pistol,  fired  and  killed  Dickinson  instantly." 


1806.]  JACKSON     ENTERTAINS     BURR.  307 

CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

GENERAL  JACKSON  ENTERTAINS  AARON  BURR, 

IT  is  a  relief  to  turn  from  these  revolting  scenes  to  others 
in  which  our  hero  appears  in  a  light  altogether  pleasing ; 
showing  himself  the  faithful  citizen  and  the  faithful  friend. 

General  Jackson,  as  we  have  already  mentioned,  removed 
from  Hunter's  Hill,  about  the  year  1804,  to  the  adjoining 
estate,  which  he  named  the  Hermitage.  The  spacious  man 
sion  now  standing  on  that  estate,  in  which  he  resided  during 
the  last  twenty-five  years  of  his  life,  was  not  built  untl] 
about  the  year  1819. 

A  square,  two  story  block  house  was  General  Jackson's 
first  dwelling-place  on  the  Hermitage  farm.  This  house, 
like  many  others  of  its  class,  contained  three  rooms  ;  one  on 
the  ground  floor,  and  two  up  stairs.  To  this  house  was  soon 
added  a  smaller  one,  which  stood  about  twenty  feet  from  the 
principal  structure,  and  was  connected  with  it  by  a  covered 
passage.  This  was  General  Jackson's  establishment  from 
1804  to  1819.  These  houses  are  still  standing  at  the  Her 
mitage,  though  not  so  close  together  as  they  were  formerly. 
The  larger  block  house  stands  where  it  stood  when  occupied 
by  General  Jackson  ;  but  has  been  cut  down  into  a  one  story 
house,  and  used  for  the  last  thirty  years  as  a  negro  cabin. 
It  does  not  differ,  in  any  respect,  from  the  ordinary  block 
negro  cabins  of  the  South.  The  interior,  never  ceiled,  is  now 
as  black  as  ebony  with  the  smoke  of  sixty  years.  There  is 
the  usual  trap  door  in  the  middle  of  the  floor  for  the  con 
venience  of  stowage  under  the  house,  for  cellar  there  is  none. 
There  is  the  usual  vast  fire-place,  capable  of  a  cord  of  wood  ; 
from  which  Jackson  went  forth  to  the  wars,  haggard  and 
anxious  ;  to  which  he  returned,  still  haggard,  but  with  the 
light  of  victory  in  his  face.  The  smaller  house  has  been 


308  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

drawn  up  near  the  present  Hermitage  ;  where  it  also  serves 
as  a  negro  cabin,  and  shows  its  ring  of  little  ebony  faces 
round  the  generous  fire  as  the  stranger  peeps  in.  The  build 
ing  which  formerly  connected  these  two  stands  near  by,  and 
is  used  as  a  store-house.  "  There  is  nothing  but  plunder  in 
it,"  explained  one  of  the  negro  women. 

Jackson  was  abundantly  satisfied  with  his  little  group  of 
block  houses,  and  built  the  Hermitage  mansion  at  last  solely 
as  a  testimonial  of  his  regard  for  his  wife.  In  that  pleasant 
climate,  with  its  eight  months  of  summer,  and  its  thirty  days 
of  decided  winter,  a  House  is  not  the  important  affair  it  is  in 
regions  less  genial.  It  is  rather  a  luxury  than  a  necessity  ; 
a  better  umbrella  than  a  tree  in  a  long  rain  ;  on  cold  nights 
a  slight  improvement  upon  camping  out ;  a  convenience  for 
mothers  with  young  children  ;  an  article  well  enough  to  have 
on  a  farm,  but  very  far  from  being  the  terribly  indispensable 
thing  it  is  in  countries  where  to  be  houseless  is  death.  It 
astounds  northern  people  to  see  what  inferior  houses  south- 
eners  are  content  to  occupy  who  could  build  palaces  if  they 
would.  The  truth  is,  they  do  not  live  in  their  houses.  Their 
life  is  on  horseback,  in  the  fields,  in  the  woods,  out  of  doors. 
On  the  coldest  days  they  do  not  feel  comfortable  unless  the 
door  stands  wide  open  to  let  in  the  sun  ;  the  air  rushing  in 
by  a  thousand  apertures,  and  keeping  the  northern  visitor  in 
a  shiver. 

In  an  establishment  so  restricted,  General  Jackson  and 
his  good-hearted  wife  continued  to  dispense  a  most  generous 
hospitality.  A  lady  of  Nashville  tells  me  that  she  has  often 
been  at  the  Hermitage  in  those  simple  old  times,  when  there 
was  in  each  of  the  four  available  rooms,  not  a  guest  merely, 
but  a  family  ;  while  the  young  men  and  solitary  travelers 
who  chanced  to  drop  in  disposed  of  themselves  on  the  piazza, 
or  any  other  half  shelter  about  the  house.  "  Put  down  in 
your  book,"  said  one  of  General  Jackson's  oldest  neighbors, 
"  that  the  General  was  the  prince  of  hospitality  ;  not  because 
he  entertained  a  great  many  people  ;  but  because  the  poor, 
belated  peddler,  was  as  welcome  as  the  President  of  the 


1806.]  JACKSON     ENTERTAINS     BURR.  309 

United  States,  and  made  so  much  at  his  ease  that  he  felt  as 
though  he  had  got  home/'  (It  is  "  put  down,"  you  observe, 
Mr.  William  Donelson.) 

We  have  now  to  contemplate  General  Jackson  performing 
the  rites  of  hospitality  to  a  distinguished  person. 

May  29th,  1805,  Colonel  Burr,  then  making  his  first  tour 
of  the  western  country,  visited  the  thriving  frontier  town  of 
Nashville.  For  several  reasons  Burr  was  extremely  popular 
in  Tennessee.  He  had  powerfully  advocated  the  cause  of  the 
young  State  when  difficulties  arose  respecting  her  admission 
into  the  Union  in  1796  ;  a  service  Tennessee  bore  in  mind 
when  she  voted  for  Jefferson  and  Burr  in  1800,  and  had  not 
forgotten  in  1805.  Colonel  Burr's  duel  with  Hamilton,  which 
occurred  thirteen  months  before  this  visit,  would  not,  in  any 
circumstances,  have  injured  his  standing  in  the  Tennessee  of 
that  day.  Hamilton  was  odious  to  the  western  Republicans, 
and  dueling  was  an  institution  of  their  own.  The  killing  of 
Hamilton  restored  Burr  to  his  former  standing  with  the 
Republican  party  in  the  western  States,  and  the  "  ostracism" 
to  which  that  act  had  subjected  him  in  his  own  State  gave 
him,  in  the  wild  West,  the  additional  regard  which  we  award 
to  a  man  who  is  persecuted  for  an  act  that  flatters  our  own 
customs,  and  assists  us  to  forgive  our  own  sins.  Moreover, 
Burr  had  just  descended  from,  the  office  of  Vice  President  with 
more  than  the  eclat  that  ordinarily  attends  the  assumption 
of  that  office.  The  long  trial  of  Judge  Chase  by  the  Senate 
had  attracted  universal  attention  ;  Burr  conducting  it,  as  a 
spectator  remarked,  with  the  impartiality  of  an  angel  and 
the  rigor  of  a  devil.  Colonel  Burr's  farewell  speech  to  the 
Senate,  just  then  circulating  in  the  remoter  newspapers, 
was  also  exceedingly  admired. 

Throughout  the  West,  therefore,  Burr  was  received  as 
the  great  man,  and  nowhere  with  such  distinction  as  at 
Nashville.  People  poured  in  from  the  adjacent  country  to 
see  and  welcome  so  renowned  a  personage.  Flags,  cannons 
and  martial  music  contributed  to  the  eclat  of  his  reception. 
An  extemporized  but  superabundant  dinner  concluded  the  cer- 


310  LIFE    OF     ANDREW    JACKSON.  [1806. 

emonies,  in  the  course  of  which  Burr  addressed  the  multitude 
with  the  serious  grace  that  usually  marked  his  demeano1*  in 
public.  Could  Jackson  be  absent  from  such  an  ovation — 
Jackson,  who  had  been  with  the  great  man  in  Congress,  and 
worked  in  concert  with  him  for  Tennessee  ?  Impossible  ! 

On  the  morning  of  this  bright  day  General  Jackson 
mounted  one  of  his  finest  horses,  and  rode  to  Nashville 
attended  by  a  servant  leading  a  milk-white  mare.  In  the 
course  of  the  dinner  General  Jackson  gave  a  toast :  "  Mil 
lions  for  defense,  but  not  one  cent  for  tribute  ;"  and  when 
Colonel  Burr  retired  from  the  apartment,  General  Overton 
proposed  his  health  to  the  company.  General  Jackson 
returned  home  at  the  close  of  the  day  accompanied  by 
Colonel  Burr,  who  was  to  be  his  guest  during  his  stay  in 
that  vicinity.  Burr  remained  only  five  days  at  the  Hermit 
age,  but  promised  to  make  a  longer  visit  on  his  return.  In 
the  hasty  outline  of  a  journal  which  he  kept  for  the  amuse 
ment  of  his  daughter,  he  made  this  entry  concerning  his  first 
visit  to  Nashville  : — "  Arrived  at  Nashville  on  the  29th  of 
May.  One  is  astonished  at  the  number  of  sensible,  well- 
informed  and  well-behaved  people  found  here.  I  have  been 
received  with  much  hospitality  and  kindness,  and  could  stay 
a  month  with  pleasure  ;  but  General  Andrew  Jackson,  hav 
ing  provided  us  a  boat,  we  shall  set  off  on  Sunday,  the  2d  of 
June,  to  navigate  down  the  Cumberland,  either  to  Smithland, 
at  its  mouth,  or  to  Eddy ville,  sixty  or  eighty  miles  above  ;  at 
one  of  which  places  we  expect  to  find  our  boat,  with  which 
we  intend  to  make  a  rapid  voyage  down  the  Mississippi  to 
Natchez  and  Orleans.  Left  Nashville,  on  the  3d  of  June,  in 
an  open  boat.  Came  down  the  Cumberland  to  its  mouth, 
about  two  hundred  and  twenty  miles,  in  an  open  boat,  where 
our  ark  was  in  waiting.  Beached  Massac,  on  the  Ohio,  six 
teen  miles  below,  on  the  6th.  Here  found  General  Wilkin 
son  on  his  way  to  St.  Louis.  The  General  and  his  officers 
fitted  me  out  with  an  elegant  barge,  sails,  colors  and  ten  oars, 
with  a  sergeant  and  ten  able,  faithful  hands." 

"  Where  our  ark  was  in  waiting."  says  Burr.     We  per- 


1806.]  JACKSON     ENTERTAINS     BURR.  31 1 

ceive  from  this  remark,  that  he  had  made  a  detour  for  the 
express  purpose  of  visiting  Nashville,  leaving  his  ark  on  the 
Ohio,  and  rejoining  it  lower  down.  General  Wilkinson,  I 
may  also  observe,  was  probably  an  old  acquaintance  of  Jack 
son's.  Years  before,  Wilkinson  had  been  a  Kentucky  store 
keeper  ;  and  the  people  of  Nashville  used  sometimes  to  ride 
all  the  way  to  Wilkinson's  store  in  Kentucky,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  procuring  some  article  not  obtainable  at  their  own 
scantily  supplied  repositories.  Burr's  acquaintance  with 
Wilkinson  dated  from  the  Eevolution,  when  they  were  fellow- 
soldiers. 

August  the  6th,  1805,  Burr  visited  the  Hermitage  again, 
on  his  return  from  New  Orleans,  as  he  had  promised.  Of 
this  visit,  which  lasted  eight  days,  we  have  no  knowledge  ex 
cept  that  derived  from  Burr's  too  brief  diary  : — "  Arrived  at 
Nashville  on  the  6th  August.  You  now  see  me  safe  through 
the  wilderness,  though  I  doubt  (hussey)  whether  you  knew 
that  I  had  a  wilderness  to  pass  in  order  to  get  here.  Yes, 
about  four  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  wilderness.  The  hos 
pitality  of  these  people  will  keep  me  here  till  the  12th  in 
stant,  when  I  shall  partake  of  a  public  dinner,  given,  not  to 
the  Vice  President,  but  to  A.  B.  I  shall  be  at  Lexington  on 
the  19th.  I  have  directed  Bradley's  new  map  of  the  United 
States  to  be  sent  to  you  ;  this  will  enable  you  to  trace  my 
route,  and  I  pray  you  to  study  the  map  attentively.  I  am 
still  at  Nashville  (August  13th).  For  a  week  I  have  been 
lounging  at  the  house  of  General  Jackson,  once  a  lawyer, 
after  a  judge,  now  a  planter  ;  a  man  of  intelligence,  and  one 
of  those  prompt,  frank,  ardent  souls  whom  I  love  to  meet. 
The  General  has  no  children,  but  two  lovely  nieces*  made  a 
visit  of  some  days,  contributed  greatly  to  my  amusement, 
and  have  cured  me  of  all  the  evils  of  my  wilderness  jaunt. 
If  I  had  time  I  would  describe  to  you  these  two  girls,  for 
they  deserve  it.  To-morrow  I  move  on  towards  Lexington." 

There  is  no  doubt  as  to  the  topic  upon  which  Colonel 

*  Nieces  of  Mrs.  Jackson. 


312  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

Burr  and  General  Jackson  chiefly  conversed  on  this  occasion. 
There  was  but  one  topic  then  in  the  western  country, — the 
threatened  war  witli  Spain. 

Antipathy  to  Spaniards  had  been  for  twenty  years  a 
ruling  passion  with  that  portion  of  the  western  people  whose 
prosperity  depended  upon  their  possessing  free  access  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  The  Spanish  authorities  on  the 
great  river  comported  themselves  so  as  to  keep  alive  this  ill 
feeling.  They  were  arrogant,  mean  and  dishonest.  Even  the 
placid  and  philosophic  Baily,  whose  adventures  in  Tennessee 
we  have  followed  in  a  previous  chapter,  lost  his  temper  in 
dealing  with  them.  Having  been  treated  with  singular  and 
most  obvious  injustice  by  a  Spanish  magistrate,  Baily,  (who 
passed  for  an  American,)  asked  him  to  point  out  the  law  by 
which  he  was  guided  to  a  decision  so  extraordinary.  "  Never," 
says  Mr.  Baily,  "  shall  I  forget  the  looks  of  the  man  at  this 
(what  he  called  impertinent)  question  ;  for,  wondering  at  my 
assurance,  and  threatening  me  with  the  horrors  of  the  Calli- 
bouse  if  I  any  longer  disputed  his  authority,  he  laid  his  hand 
upon  his  breast  and  told  me  that  lie  was  the  law  ;  and  that 
as  he  said  the  case  was  to  be  determined.  I  could  not  help 
laughing  at  the  insulting  effrontery  of  the  man  when  he  made 
this  speech,  at  which  he  seemed  more  than  ever  enraged  ; 
and,  I  believe,  had  it  not  been  for  the  neighboring  situation 
of  the  American  commissioner  and  commander,  together  with 
the  general  revolting  spirit  of  the  district,  that  I  should  have 
been  hurried  off  to  immediate  imprisonment,  if  not  to  the 
mines" 

This  was  in  1797.  A  long  course  of  irritating  behavior 
had,  at  length,  brought  Spain  and  the  United  States  to  the 
verge  of  war.  The  whole  country  expected  it.  The  West 
longed  for  it.  And,  perhaps,  no  man  then  residing  in  the 
valley  of  the  Mississippi  looked  forward  to  it  with  such  inten 
sity  of  desire  as  Andrew  Jackson.  No  news  would  have  been 
more  welcome  at  the  Hermitage  than  that  General  Wilkin 
son  had  marched  into  Texas  and  begun  the  war.  Meanwhile, 
between  Burr  and  Jackson,  as  between  every  other  two  men 


1806.]  JACKSON     ENTERTAINS     BURR.  313 

that  found  themselves  together,  the  question  was  still  re 
newed  :  Shall  we  have  war  with  Spain  ? 

Colonel  Burr  returned  to  the  East.  Months  passed,  dur 
ing  which  Jackson  and  Burr  occasionally  corresponded.  The 
following  is  one  of  Burr's  letters  to  his  friend  Jackson,  writ 
ten  during  this  interval.  It  is  a  letter  adapted  with  wonder 
ful  skill  to  move  and  rouse  a  man  like  Jackson,  who  was  an 
ardent,  and  therefore  a  jealous  lover  of  his  country  : — 

AARON    BURR    TO    ANDREW    JACKSON. 

"WASHINGTON  CITY,  March  24,  1806. 

"DEAR  SIR: — Your  letter  of  the  1st  January  arrived  here  whilst  I  was 
in  South  Carolina,  and  was  not  received  till  about  two  months  after  its 
date. 

"  You  have  doubtless  before  this  time  been  convinced  that  we  are  to 
have  no  war  if  it  can  be  avoided  with  honor,  or  even  without.  The  object 
of  the  administration  appears  to  be  to  treat  for  the  purchase  of  the  Floridas ; 
and  the  secret  business  which  so  long  occupied  Congress  is  believed  to  be  an 
appropriation  of  two  millions  of  dollars  for  that  purpose.  This  secret  is  a 
secret  to  those  only  who  are  best  entitled  to  know  it — our  own  citizens. 

"  But  notwithstanding  the  pacific  temper  of  our  government,  there  is 
great  reason  to  expect  hostility,  arising  out  of  the  expedition  under  G-eneral 
Miranda.  This  expedition  was  fitted  out  at  New  York,  and  the  object  is 
pretty  well  known  to  be  an  attempt  to  revolutionize  the  Caraccas,  which  is 
the  native  country  of  Miranda.  Though  our  government  disavows  all  knowl 
edge  of  this  proceeding,  which,  however,  is  not  justified  to  the  entire  satis 
faction  of  the  public,  yet  foreign  courts  will  hold  it  responsible  for  the  con 
duct  of  an  armament  composed  of  American  citizens,  and  openly  fitted  out 
in  an  American  port;  and  it  would  not  surprise  me  if  on  a  knowledge  of 
these  facts  at  Paris-  and  Madrid  our  vessels  in  the  ports  of  those  kingdoms 
should  be  seized  and  measures  taken  for  the  reduction  of  Orleans. 

"  If  these  apprehensions  should  be  justified  by  events,  a  military  force 
on  our  part  would  be  requisite,  and  that  force  might  come  from  your  side 
of  the  mountains.  It  is  presumed  that  West  Tennessee  could  not  spare 
more  than  two  regiments. 

"  I  am  glad  to  learn  that  you  have  had  your  division  reviewed ;  but 
you  ought  not  to  confine  your  attention  to  those  men  or  officers  who  ac 
cidentally  bear  commissions.  Your  country  is  full  of  fine  materials  for  an 
army,  and  I  have  often  said  a  brigade  could  be  raised  in  West  Tennessee 
which  would  drive  double  their  number  of  Frenchmen  off  the  earth.  I  take 
the  liberty  of  recommending  to  you  to  make  out  a  list  of  officers  from  colonel 


314  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

down  to  ensign  for  one  or  two  regiments,  composed  of  fellows  fit  for  busi 
ness,  and  with  whom  you  would  trust  your  life  and  your  honor.  If  you 
will  transmit  to  me  that  list,  I  will,  in  case  troops  should  be  called  for,  rec 
ommend  it  to  the  Department  of  War,  and  I  have  reason  to  believe  that 
on  such  an  occasion  my  advice  would  be  listened  to. 

"  But  Mr  Randolph's  denunciation  of  the  President  and  the  Secretary 
of  State  engage  at  present  more  of  public  attention  than  all  our  collisions 
with  foreign  powers,  or  than  all  the  great  events  on  the  theater  of  Europe. 
I  did  not  hear  Mr.  Randolph,  but  am  told  that  he  charged  the  President 
with  duplicity  and  imbecility ;  that  he  (the  President)  used  bold  language 
in  his  message  to  the  two  Houses  to  amuse  the  public,  and  secretly  exer 
cised  his  influence  to  prevent  any  vigorous  measure,  alluding  to  the  busi 
ness  transacted  with  closed  doors  for  the  purchase  of  the  Floridas.  I  will 
send  you  Mr.  Randolph's  speeches  as  soon  as  published,  but  presume  that 
the  acrimony  which  was  manifested  on  the  floor  will  not  appear  without 
some  qualification  in  print 

"  You  will  herewith  receive  two  documents  respecting  Barbary  affairs. 
It  deserves  to  be  remarked  that  though  these  facts  were  all  known  to  the 
administration  before  the  meeting  of  Congress,  yet  Colonel  Lear  still  holds 
office  and  enjoys  the  confidence  and  support  of  the  Executive.  Neverthe 
less,  it  is  thought  that  the  treaty  with  Tripoli  will  not  be  ratified  by  the 
Senate. 

"  All  these  things,  my  dear  sir,  begin  to  make  reflecting  men  to  think, 
many  good  patriots  to  doubt,  and  some  to  despond.  I  am,  dear  sir,  grate 
fully  and  affectionately,  your  friend  and  servant, 

«A.  BURR."* 

Upon  the  receipt  of  this  letter,  General  Jackson  hastened 
to  comply  with  the  request  it  contained  with  regard  to  pre 
paring  lists  of  officers  for  two  imaginary  regiments.  For  this 
purpose,  he  consulted  with  General  James  Robertson  and 
several  other  friends  at  Nashville.  The  lists  were  soon  dis 
patched. 

A  few  days  after,  a  considerable  packet  from  Colonel  Burr 
reached  General  Jackson  through  the  mail,  accompanied  by  a 
brief  note  addressed  to  the  "  Hon'ble  Andrew  Jackson,  Esq'r." 
Burr  had  the  franking  privilege,  but  these  letters  to  Jackson, 
I  observe,  are  not  franked,  but  charged  the  usual  "  twenty- 
five"  cents  on  the  outside;  perhaps,  because  the  franking 

*  From  MSS.  of  Major  William  B.  Lewis. 


1806.]  JACKSON      ENTERTAINS      BURR.  315 

privilege  was  not  granted  to  the  retiring  Vice  President  by 
the  unanimous  vote  of  the  body  over  which  he  had  presided. 
"  Agreeably  to  my  promise,"  wrote  Burr,  in  the  note  accom 
panying  the  packet,  "  you  will  find  herewith  inclosed  a  copy 
of  Mr.  Randolph's  speech.  It  is  accompanied  by  one  of  Mr. 
Swan,  a  Quaker  farmer  from  New  Jersey.  Since  these  speeches 
have  been  published  the  injunction  of  secrecy  has  been  taken 
off,  and  a  copy  of  the  journal  of  the  proceedings  with  closed 
doors  is  also  inclosed.  Though  you  may  not  be  immediately 
able  to  answer,  yet  I  beg  you  will  not  delay  to  acknowledge 
the  receipt  of  my  letter  of  last  month.  I  am  about  to  visit 
Philadelphia,  but  you  may  continue  to  address  me  at  this 
place  (Washington).  My  letters  will  be  carefully  forwarded/'* 

This  note,  dated  "  Ap.  5th,  '06,"  reached  General  Jack 
son  when  he  was  in  the  midst  of  his  affair  with  Swann. 
That  bloody  and  infernal  duel  was  subsequently  fought. 
Jackson,  suffering  much  from  his  wound,  suffering  more  from 
excitement  and  the  coolness  of  friends,  was  an  unhappy  man 
during  the  summer  of  1806,  and,  perhaps,  in  his  secret  soul, 
a  repentant  one.  He,  probably,  thought  little  of  Burr,  or 
the  Spanish  difficulties,  as  he  lay  on  his  settee  at  the  Her 
mitage,  waiting  for  the  healing  of  his  wound.  With  Septem 
ber,  however,  came  cooler  days,  restored  health,  reviving 
spirits,  and — Aaron  Burr.  Burr  had  brought  to  the  western 
country,  and  left  on  Blennerhassett  Island,  his  daughter, 
Theodosia  ;  intending  never  again  to  return  to  the  eastern 
States.  He  was  in  the  full  tide  of  preparation  for  descending 
to  the  lower  country. 

The  morning  after  his  arrival  at  the  Hermitage,  General 
Jackson,  on  hospitable  thoughts  intent,  wrote  to  a  friend  in 
Nashville  the  following  note  : — "  Colonel  Burr  is  with  me  ; 
he  arrived  last  night.  I  would  be  happy  if  you  would  call 
and  see  the  Colonel  before  you  return.  Say  to  General  0. 
that  I  shall  expect  to  see  him  here  on  to-morrow  with  you. 
Would  it  not  be  well  for  us  to  do  something  as  a  mark  of 
attention  to  the  Colonel  ?  He  has  always  and  is  still  a  true 
and  trusty  friend  to  Tennessee.  If  General  Robertston  is 


316  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

with,  you  when  you  receive  this,  be  good  enough  to  say  to 
him,  that  Colonel  Burr  is  in  the  country.  I  know  that  Gen 
eral  K.  will  be  happy  in  joining  in  anything  that  will  tend  to 
show  a  mark  of  respect  to  this  worthy  visitant." 

The  note  produced  all  the  effects  desired.  General  Rob 
ertson,  General  Overton,  Major  W.  P.  Anderson,  and  many 
others  of  the  leading  men  at  Nashville,  rode  out  to  the  Her 
mitage  to  pay  their  respects  to  Colonel  Burr,  and  to  invite 
him  to  their  houses.  "He  dined  with  me,"  says  General 
Robertson,  in  one  of  his  letters,  "  and  I  was  several  times  in 
his  company.  He  told  me  he  expected  to  make  settlements 
with  his  son-in-law  on  the  western  waters.  I  endeavored  to 
find  how  the  Executive  of  our  government  was  held  with,  but 
he  was  so  guarded,  I  gained  but  little  satisfaction."  To 
private  attentions  was  added  the  honor  of  an  invitation  to  a 
public  ball.  Already,  however,  some  rumors  were  afloat, 
attributing  to  Burr  unlawful  designs  ;  and  there  were  not 
wanting  those  who  questioned  the  propriety  of  this  invitation. 
But  the  popularity  of  Burr  and  the  influence  of  General 
Jackson  prevailed,  and  the  invitation  was  given.  There  are 
still  a  few  persons  living  at  Nashville  who  remember  this 
famous  ball  ;  remember  the  hush  and  thrill  attending  the 
entrance  of  Colonel  Burr,  accompanied  by  General  Jackson  in 
the  uniform  of  a  Major  General ;  and  how  the  company  lined 
the  sides  of  the  room,  and  looked  intently  on  while  the  two 
courtliest  men  in  the  world  made  the  circuit  of  the  apart 
ment,  General  Jackson  introducing  his  guest  with  singular 
grace  and  emphasis.  It  was  a  question  with  the  lacrfes  which 
of  the  two  was  the  finer  gentleman. 

After  a  stay  of  a  few  days,  Colonel  Burr  left  Tennessee 
to  take  up  the  threads  of  his  enterprise  in  Kentucky  and 
Ohio. 

October  passed  by.  On  the  3d  of  November,  General 
Jackson,  in  his  character  of  business  man,  received  from  Burr 
some  important  orders  ;  one  for  the  building,  on  Stone's  river 
at  Clover  Bottom,  of  five  large  boats,  such  as  were  then  used 
for  descending  the  western  rivers,  and  another  for  the  gradual 


1806.]     EXPLOSION    OF    BURR'S    PROJECT. 


317 


purchase  of  a  large  quantity  of  provisions  for  transportation 
in  those  boats.  A  sum  of  money,  in  Kentucky  bank  notes, 
amounting  to  three  thousand  five  hundred  dollars,  accom 
panied  the  orders.  General  Jackson,  nothing  doubting,  and 
never  reluctant  to  do  business,  took  Burr's  letter  of  directions 
and  the  money  to  his  partner,  John  Coffee,  and  requested 
him  to  contract  at  once  for  the  boats,  and  prepare  for  the 
purchase  of  the  provisions.  Coffee  proceeded  forthwith  to 
transact  the  business.  I  notice,  also,  that  Patten  Anderson, 
one  of  Jackson's  special  intimates,  was  all  activity  in  raising 
a  company  of  young  men  to  accompany  Burr  down  the  river. 
I  observe,  too,  that  Anderson's  expenses  were  paid  out  of  the 
money  sent  by  Burr  to  Jackson  ;  at  least  in  the  account  ren 
dered  to  Burr  by  Jackson  and  Coffee  at  the  final  settlement, 
there  is  an  item  of  seven  hundred  dollars  cash  paid  to  Ander 
son.  Anderson  succeeded  in  getting  seventy-five  young  men 
to  enlist  in  his  company. 

What  with  the  mustering  of  recruits,  the  building  of 
boats  and  the  accumulation  of  provisions,  Clover  Bottom — so 
silent  and  deserted  now,  its  old  wooden  bridge  across  the  deep 
ravine  of  a  river  seldom  thundering  under  a  vehicle,  Jackson's 
old  store  standing  lone  and  desolate  in  a  field — must  have 
presented  a  lively  scene  in  the  autumn  of  1806. 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

EXPLOSION  OF  BURR'S  PROJECT. 

IT  was  not  until  the  10th  of  November,  a  week  after  the 
receipt  of  Burr's  orders  and  money,  that  General  Jackson, 
according  to  his  own  account,  began  to  think  there  might  be 
some  truth  in  the  reports  which  attributed  to  Burr  unlawful 
designs  ;  reports  which  he  had  previously  regarded  only  as 
VOL.  i. — 21 


318  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806. 

new  evidences  of  the  malice  of  Burr's  political  enemies  and 
his  own. 

To  Jackson,  as  to  all  others  in  Nashville,  Burr  had  repre 
sented  that  his  first  object  was  the  settlement  of  a  great  tract 
of  land  on  the  Washita  river  ;  but  that,  if  war  broke  out 
between  Spain  and  the  United  States,  it  was  his  intention  to 
head  an  expedition  into  Texas  and  Mexico.  For  his  own 
part,  he  said,  he  had  little  doubt  that  war  was  impending  ;  it 
might  be  expected  at  any  moment  ;  it  might  already  have 
began.  The  administration,  he  would  insinuate,  knew  per 
fectly  well  where  he  was,  what  he  was  doing  and  what  he 
intended,  though,  for  reasons  of  policy,  they  would  not  yet 
suffer  their  hand  to  appear.  He  said  nothing  about  the 
means  he  had  employed  to  precipitate  the  war  ;  nothing  of 
Samuel  Swartwout's  secret  mission  to  General  Wilkinson's 
camp  ;  nothing  of  the  letters  in  cipher  designed  to  act 
upon  Wilkinson's  cupidity  and  fears  ;  nothing,  in  fact,  of 
any  part  of  his  plans  that  could  excite  distrust  in  the  minds 
of  these  honest  and  patriotic  pioneers. 

But  about  the  10th  of  November,  while  General  Jackson 
and  his  partners  were  full  of  Burr's  business,  a  friend  of 
Jackson's  visited  the  Hermitage,  who  succeeded  in  convincing 
him  that  some  gigantic  scheme  of  iniquity  was  on  foot  in  the 
United  States  ;  a  conspiracy  for  the  dismemberment  of  the 
Union  ;  and  that  it  was  possible,  nay,  almost  probable,  that 
Colonel  Burr's  extensive  preparations  of  boats,  provisions  and 
men  had  some  connection  with  this  nefarious  plan.  General 
Jackson's  own  narrative  of  his  conversations  with  this  anony 
mous  friend  shall  be  laid  before  the  reader  in  a  moment. 
Suffice  it  here  to  say  that  his  suspicions  were  aroused  by  them 
early  in  the  month  of  November. 

He  took  the  proper  measures  without  loss  of  time.  He 
told  Coffee  that  the  boats  contracted  for  and  begun  must  be 
finished,  and  the  provisions  bought  must  be  paid  for  ;  but 
that  no  new  transaction  must  be  entered  into  by  their  firm 
for  Aaron  Burr  until  these  suspicions  were  completely  re 
moved.  He  wrote  to  Burr,  acquainting  him  with  what  he 


1806.]     EXPLOSION   OF   BURR'S   PROJECT.         319 

had  heard,  and  demanding  to  know  the  truth.  Having  been 
informed  by  his  friend  that  New  Orleans  was  the  preliminary 
object  of  the  conspirators,  he  wrote  a  warning  letter  to  Wil 
liam  C.  C.  Claiborne,  the  Governor  of  the  Orleans  Territory, 
couched  in  language  most  mysterious.  The  letter  to  Gov 
ernor  Claiborne,  dated  November  12th,  was  as  follows  : — 

"  SIR  : — Although  it  is  a  long  time  since  I  wrote  you,  still  that  friend 
ship  that  once  existed  remains  bright  on  my  part ;  and  although  since  I 
have  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  I  have  waded  through  difficult  and 
disagreeable  scenes,  still  I  have  had  that  fondness  for  my  old  and  former 
friends  that  I  ever  had ;  and  their  memory  has  been  more  endeared  to  me 
by  the  treachery  I  have  experienced,  since  I  saw  you,  by  some  newly- 
acquired  ones.  Indeed  I  fear  treachery  has  become  the  order  of  the  day. 
This  induces  me  to  write  to  you.  Put  your  town  in  a  state  of  defense. 
Organize  your  militia,  and  defend  your  city  as  well  against  internal  ene 
mies  as  external.  My  knowledge  does  not  extend  so  far  as  to  authorize 
me  to  go  into  detail ;  but  I  fear  you  will  meet  with  an  attack  from  quarters 
you  do  not  at  present  expect.  Be  upon  the  alert ;  keep  a  watchful  eye  upon 
our  General  (Wilkinson)  and  beware  of  an  attack  as  well  from  our  own 
country  as  Spain.  I  fear  there  is  something  rotten  in  the  state  of  Denmark. 
You  have  enemies  within  your  own  city  that  may  try  to  subvert  your 
government  and  try  to  separate  it  from  the  Union.  You  know  I  never 
hazard  ideas  without  good  grounds,  and  you  will  keep  these  hints  to  your 
self.  But  I  say  again,  be  on  the  alert ;  your  government  I  fear  is  in  danger. 
I  fear  there  are  plans  on  foot  inimical  to  the  Union. 

"  Whether  they  will  be  attempted  to  be  carried  into  effect  or  not,  I 
can  not  say ;  but  rest  assured  they  are  in  operation,  or  I  calculate  boldly. 
Beware  of  the  month  of  December.  I  love  my  country  and  government. 
I  hate  the  Dons ;  I  would  delight  to  see  Mexico  reduced  ;  but  I  will  die  in 
the  last  ditch  before  I  would  yield  a  foot  to  the  Dons,  or  see  the  Union  dis 
united.  This  I  write  for  your  own  eyes,  and  for  your  own  safety ;  profit 
by  it,  and  the  ides  of  March  remember." 

Besides  this  truly  awful  epistle,  he  wrote  a  letter  to 
President  Jefferson,  offering  the  services  of  his  division  of 
militia  : — 

"To  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES: — 

"  SIR, — In  the  event  of  insult  or  aggression  made  on  our  government 
and  country  FROM  ANY  QUARTER,  I  am  well  convinced  that  the  public  senti- 


320  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1806 

ment  and  feeling  of  the  citizens  within  this  State,  and  particularly  within 
my  division,  are  of  such  a  nature  and  such  a  kind  that  I  take  the  liberty  of 
tendering  their  services,  that  is,  under  my  command ;  and  at  one  moment's 
warning,  after  your  signification  that  this  tender  is  acceptable,  rny  orders 
shall  be  given  conformably. 

"  I  beg  leave  to  offer  to  your  view  the  enclosed  orders  some  short  time 
ago  issued  by  me,  since  which  time  I  have  not  been  furnished  with  com 
plete  returns  of  the  volunteer  companies ;  but  from  the  information  I  pos 
sess,  I  have  no  doubt  that  three  regiments  of  volunteers  (to  be  commanded 
by  their  own  officers,  and  such  as  may  be  recommended  by  their  General) 
can  be  brought  into  the  field,  ready  to  march,  in  twenty  days  from  the 
receipt  of  orders. 

"  Accept  assurances  of  my  high  consideration  and  respect,  etc." 

To  other  friends  and  officials  lie  communicated  his  sus 
picions  without  reserve  ;  particularly  to  General  Overton  and 
General  Kobertson. 

A  month  went  by ;  during  which  occurred  Burr's  arrest 
in  Kentucky,  his  defense  by  Henry  Clay,  and  his  triumphant 
acquittal.  December  14th  Burr  was  once  more  in  Nashville, 
intending  there  to  load  his  boats,  and  drop  down  the  Cum 
berland  to  its  mouth,  where  he  was  to  meet  his  flotilla  from 
Blennerhassett  island.  Thence  they  were  all  to  float  down 
together  to  Natchez — to  Wilkinson — to  Texas — to  the  halls 
of  the  Montezumas — to  the  throne  of  Spanish  America — to 
an  empire  bounded,  if  bounded  at  all,  by  the  limits  of  the 
valley  of  the  Mississippi  ;  New  Orleans  its  capital,  Aaron 
the  First  its  emperor,  the  brilliant  Theodosia  and  her  boy  to 
succeed  him  ! 

Colonel  Burr  called  at  the  Hermitage  ;  its  master  was 
absent.  He  found  Mrs.  Jackson  cool  and  constrained.  Ke- 
turning  to  Clover  Bottom  he  mentioned  this  unwonted  cool 
ness  to  Coffee,  and  asked  him  the  reason  of  it.  Coffee  ex 
plained.  "At  Clover  Bottom,"  says  Coffee,  in  a  formal 
statement  of  these  affairs,  "  there  was  a  tavern  ;  and  to  this 
place  Colonel  Burr  came  and  remained  about  a  week,  until 
he  had  got  every  thing  in  readiness  for  his  departure  down 
the  river.  On  his  first  arrival  General  Jackson  was  absent 
from  home  ;  having  returned  within  a  few  days  afterwards, 


1806.]    EXPLOSION  OF  BURR'S   PROJECT.       321 

the  General  came,  in  company  with  General  Overton,  to  the 
Clover  Bottom,  where  Colonel  Burr  resided.  An  interview 
took  place  between  them  and  Colonel  Burr,  at  which  they 
informed  him  of  the  suspicions  and  distrust  that  were  enter 
tained  against  him.  Burr  repelled  them,  and  expressed  deep 
regret  that  there  should  be  any  such  ;  and  remarked,  that  he 
could  and  would  be  able  to  satisfy  every  dispassionate  mind, 
that  his  views  and  objects  were  friendly  to  the  government, 
and  such  as  he  had  represented  them  to  be.  In  a  few  days 
after,  he  left  the  country.  A  son  of  Colonel  Hays,  about 
seventeen  years  of  age,  as  has  been  represented,  nephew  to 
Mrs.  Jackson,  went  along.  His  father  had  become  reduced 
in  his  circumstances  ;  had  been  personally  known  to  Colonel 
Burr,  during  the  Eevolution  ;  and  his  son  was  a  young  man 
of  promise.  It  had  been  proposed  to  the  old  gentleman,  that 
he  should  take  him,  and  aid  him  in  his  education,  which  was 
consented  to  by  his  father.  General  Jackson  gave  him  letters 
to  Governor  Claiborne,  and  instructed  young  Mr.  Hays,  as  I 
understood  at  the  time,  that  should  he  discover  Colonel 
Burr's  views  to  be  at  all  inimical  to  the  United  States,  or 
adverse  to  the  designs  of  government,  to  leave  him,  and  place 
himself  under  the  protection  and  care  of  Governor  Claiborne." 
This  nephew  of  Mrs.  Jackson,  Stokely  D.  Hays  by  name, 
published  an  explanation  of  his  connection  with  Burr.  aln 
the  winter  of  1806-7,"  he  says,  "the  Colonel  came  to  Nash 
ville,  and  sent  for  me  when  at  school  near  there,  and  on  meet 
ing  him,  he  claimed  the  promise  which  had  been  made  to  him 
on  his  first  visit — but  stated  he  was  going  by  the  way  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  that  I  must  accompany  him,  and  that  he 
had  seen  my  father  and  obtained  his  consent ;  that  he  re 
ceived  me  as  a  son,  and  I  must  consider  him  in  the  character 
of  a  father.  I  observed  to  him,  that  I  must  see  and  consult 
my  friends,  before  I  gave  my  final  consent.  On  advising 
with  them,  some  doubt  of  Mr.  Burr's  object  was  suggested, 
but  he  having  pledged  his  word  of  honor  that  he  had  nothing 
in  view  hostile  to  the  best  interests  of  the  United  States,  I 
determined  to  go  with  him.  Mr.  C.  C.  Claiborne  was  at  that 


322  LIFE     OF     ANDREW    JACKSON.  [1807. 

time  Governor  of  Louisiana,  and  an  old  friend  of  my  father's, 
and  had  requested  him  to  permit  me  to  go  to  New  Orleans  as 
his  private  secretary.  To  him  General  Jackson  wrote  a  let 
ter,  and  gave  me  to  deliver,  urging  it  on  me,  in  the  most 
earnest  manner,  to  leave  Burr,  if  at  any  time  I  should  dis 
cover  he  had  any  views  or  intentions  inimical  to  the  interests 
or  integrity  of  the  government/' 

On  the  22d  of  December,  in  two  unarmed  boats,  Burr 
and  his  few  followers  left  Clover  Bottom.  Coffee  explains  in 
an  affidavit  the  nature  of  the  final  settlement  between  the 
adventurer  and  the  firm  of  which  himself  was  a  member  : — 
"  The  report  of  his  acting  in  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  the 
government,  prevented  his  procuring  supplies  of  provisions  ; 
and  he  had  not  use  for  all  the  boats  that  had  been  made  for 
him.  Two,  I  believe,  was  the  number  he  made  use  of  for 
himself  and  those  with  him.  The  balance  of  the  boats — the 
number  I  do  not  recollect — were  left  by  Mr.  Burr  ;  and  after 
ward,  by  virtue  of  his  order  in  favor  of  Patten  Anderson,  the 
boats,  or  the  proceeds  thereof,  were  paid  over  to  Mr.  Ander 
son.  When  Mr.  Burr  was  at  Clover  Bottom,  General  Jack 
son  and  myself  made  a  settlement  with  him,  the  said  Burr  ; 
and,  after  charging  him  with  the  boats  and  other  articles  fur 
nished  him  for  his  voyage  down  the  river,  I  returned  him  all 
the  balance  of  his  money  ($1725  62)  in  the  very  same  notes 
first  sent  by  him,  and  the  accounts  were  then  completely 
closed  and  paid  on  both  sides,  as  I  understood/'* 

Burr  had  not  been  gone  many  hours  before  the  President's 
proclamation  denouncing  him  reached  Nashville,  and  threw 
that  peaceful  town,  and  all  the  country  round  about,  into  a 
delirium  of  excitement.  Burr  was  immediately  burnt  in 
effigy  in  the  public  square.  There  was  contention  which 
man  should  surpass  all  others  in  the  fury  of  his  patriotic 
zeal.  All  this  can  be  imagined.  We  have  only  to  do  with 
the  performances  of  General  Jackson  on  this  great  occasion. 

On  the  1st  of  January,  he  received  special  communica- 

*  Affidavit  of  Colonel  John  Coffee,  in  action  of  Blennerhassett  vs.  Andrew 
Jackson,  Natchez,  1815. 


1807.]       EXPLOSION    OF    BURR'S    PROJECT.       323 

tions  from  the  President  and  Secretary  of  War,  ordering  him 
to  hold  his  command  in  readiness  to  march,  and  to  use  all 
means  in  his  power  to  frustrate  the  designs  of  the  traitors. 
To  issue  the  requisite  orders  to  his  division,  and  to  dispatch 
a  messenger  to  alarm  the  lower  country,  was  the  work  of  a 
very  few  hours.  Let  the  following  correspondence  and  papers 
attest  his  zeal  and  activity. 

By  a  special  messenger,  John  Murrell,  he  sent,  among 
other  letters,  a  note  of  warning  to  Captain  Bissell,  of  the 
United  States  army,  commandant  of  Fort  Massac,  on  the 
Ohio,  past  which  the  mighty  flotilla  was  expected  to  go. 
"  Sundry  reports,"  he  wrote  to  Bissell,  "  which  has  reached 
me,  state  that  there  are  a  number  of  armed  men,  with  boats 
loadsd  with  arms  and  ammunition,  assembled  en  the  Ohio, 
at,  or  near  the  mouth  of  Cumberland,  with  intentions  hostile 
to  the  peace  and  interest  of  the  United  States.  I  have  no 
doubt  but  you  have  received  the  President's  proclamation, 
and  orders  from  the  Secretary  of  War,  to  intercept  and  bring 
to  justice  all  men  engaged  in  any  enterprise  contrary  to  the 
laws  or  orders  of  our  government.  If  these  you  have  not  re 
ceived,  should  it  come  to  your  knowledge  that  there  is  an 
assemblage  of  men  and  boats,  who  have  illegal  enterprises  in 
view,  it  is  expected  that  you  will  exert  your  force  to  take  and 
bring  to  justice  all  such.  You  will  be  also  good  enough  to 
give  me  information  of  and  concerning  such  assemblage  of 
armed  men  and  boats  loaded  with  warlike  stores,  their  num 
ber,  and  point  of  rendezvous  ;  and  dispatch  the  bearer  back 
without  delay,  with  such  information  as  you  may  have  in 
your  power  to  communicate." 

The  messenger  returned  in  a  few  days  with  the  informa 
tion  that  no  warlike  flotilla  could  be  found  or  heard  of  in  the 
lower  country.  Captain  BisselFs  reply  to  Jackson's  note 
reads  like  satire.  "  This  day,  January  5th,  per  express,"  he 
wrote,  "  I  had  the  honor  to  receive  your  very  interesting  let 
ter  of  the  2d  inst.,  and  shall  pay  due  respect  to  its  contents  ; 
as  yet,  I  have  not  received  the  President's  proclamation  al 
luded  to,  nor  have  I  received  any  orders  from  the  Department 


324  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1807. 

of  War  relative  to  the  subject-matter  of  your  letter.  There 
has  not,  to  my  knowledge,  been  any  assembling  of  men  or 
boats  at  this,  or  any  other  place,  unauthorized  by  law  or 
presidency,  but  should  any  thing  of  the  kind  make  its  appear 
ance  which  carries  with  it  the  least  mark  of  suspicion  as  hav 
ing  illegal  enterprises  or  projects  in  view  hostile  to  the  peace 
and  good  order  of  government,  I  shall,  with  as  much  ardor 
and  energy  as  the  case  will  admit,  endeavor  to  bring  to  justice 
all  such  offenders.  For  more  than  two  weeks  past  I  have 
made  it  a  point  to  make  myself  acquainted  with  the  loading 
and  situation  of  all  boats  descending  the  river  ;  as  yet,  there 
has  nothing  the  least  alarming  appeared.  On,  or  about  the 
31st  ult.,  Colonel  Burr,  late  Vice  President  of  the  United 
States,  passed  this  with  about  ten  boats,  of  different  descrip 
tions,  navigated  with  about  six  men  each,  having  nothing  on 
board  that  would  even  suffer  a  conjecture  more  than  a  man 
bound  to  a  market ;  he  has  descended  the  rivers  toward  Or 
leans.  Should  any  thing  to  my  knowledge  transpire  interest 
ing  to  government  I  will  give  the  most  early  notice  in  my 
power." 

Meanwhile  the  panic  in  Nashville  was  unabated.  The 
revolutionary  veterans,  all  over  fifty  years  of  age,  headed  by 
General  James  Kobertson,  tendered  their  services  to  General 
Jackson  in  a  formal  address.  "  This  is  an  important  crisis," 
said  these  old  men,  "  when  the  limits  of  legal  active  exertion 
ought  not  to  be  sought  with  a  microscopic  eye.  So  far  as  our 
bodily  powers  will  admit,  we  cheerfully  submit  to  the  rigors 
of  military  institutions.  Our  country  will  require  nothing 
unnecessarily  of  us.  The  thread  of  age  will  not  be  broken, 
but  it  win  be  used  to  the  extent  of  its  strength.  Under 
these  impressions  we  agree  to  embody  ourselves,  and,  aged 
and  infirm  as  we  may  be,  offer  our  services  and  fortunes  to 
our  country  in  support  of  its  laws  and  constituted  authori 
ties." 

To  this  address,  which  seems  to  have  made  a  profound 
impression,  General  Jackson  sent  a  reply  which  was  highly 
Jacksonian  : — 


1807.]      EXPLOSION    OF    BURR'S   PROJECT.         325 

u  GENERAL  JAMES  ROBERTSON  AND  THE  CORPS  OF  INVINCIBLES  YOU  HAVE 
THE  HONOR  TO  COMMAND  : — The  tender  of  your  services  at  this  serious  crisis, 
when  our  government  has  warned  us  to  be  watchful,  is  honorable,  not  only 
to  yourselves,  but  the  country  in  which  we  live.  It  is  interesting  and 
grateful  at  the  present  moment.  The  Executive  of  the  Union,  in  whom  we 
all  have  confidence,  will  not  only  receive  it  with  pleasure,  as  a  mark  of 
attachment  to  the  government  and  laws ;  but  the  faithful  historian  of  pass 
ing  times  can  not  avoid  noticing  it  as  an  instance  of  patriotism  to  be  found 
only  in  republics ;  for  their  support  they  rest  on  the  opinion  and  affections 
of  the  people,  and,  above  all  governments,  union  of  sentiments  and  action 
is  necessary. 

"  Though  all  citizens  must  be  sensible  of  the  inestimable  blessings  we 
enjoy,  yet  your  generous  expression  of  them  has  filled  me  with  emotions  of 
ardor  as  extraordinary  as  the  occasion  which  gave  birth  to  them.  May  all 
men  cherish  such  sentiments,  is  my  sincere  wish.  Age,  in  a  government 
of  laws  and  freedom,  is  entitled  to  a  claim  of  patriotism,  but  it  is  usually 
entitled  to  the  highest  respect  from  youth.  The  frost  of  age  and  experi 
ence  is  as  necessary  in  the  moral  as  in  the  physical  world.  The  dissipated 
attention  of  men  is  collected,  and  the  natural  relaxation  of  youth  invigo 
rated.  Hence  our  union  of  sentiments  in  the  position  that  all  men  ought  to 
contribute  their  mite,  in  some  mode,  to  the  public  good.  But  when  age, 
in  its  wisdom,  bounds  beyond  its  ordinary  limits  of  counsel  and  admonition 
into  the  hardy  field  of  exertion,  my  God !  how  can  I  express  my  sensa 
tions  ! 

"  Age,  from  the  immutable  principles  of  the  law  of  nature,  is  entitled  to 
an  exemption  from  continued  bodily  exertion;  but  should  the  danger 
which  threatens  our  country  require  your  service  in  the  field,  it  is  hoped 
that  the  occasion  may  be  temporary,  and  that  you  only  will  be  wanting  in 
the  field  of  battle,  where  your  years  and  meritorious  services  will  be  duly 
considered.  There  your  commander  well  knows  that  your  former  services, 
presence  and  bravery  will  be  equal  to  a  regiment  of  men. 

"  Accept  the  thanks  of  the  government,  and  of  your  General  to  whom 
you  have  so  generously  offered  your  services,  with  the  sentiments  of  my 
grateful  respect." 

The  militia  were  furbishing  their  arms  and  hastening  to 
the  rendezvous.  The  first  troops  in  readiness  to  march  were 
the  two  Nashville  companies,  who  were  reviewed  by  the  Major 
General  amid  the  enthusiasm  of  the  town.  "  On  Saturday 
last,"  says  the  Impartial  Review  of  January  17th.  "  two  com 
panies  of  the  militia  of  this  county  were  reviewed  by  Major 
General  A.  Jackson,  at  this  place.  We  can  not  but  express 


326  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1807. 

our  satisfaction  at  the  promptness  with  which  this  rendezvous 
was  attended,  and  the  patriotism  displayed  by  the  major 
general ;  likewise  the  brigadier  generals,  among  whom  were 
Brigadier  General  Isaac  Eoberts,  who,  on  his  return  from 
Duck  river,  received  his  orders  and  immediately  hastened  to 
obey  them.  The  unity  of  sentiment  which  pervaded  every 
breast  on  this  occasion,  and  the  general  flame  of  indignation 
which  burst  forth  on  all  sides  at  the  recollection  of  the  trait 
orous  conduct  of  the  individuals  whose  expedition  gave  rise 
to  the  orders  that  called  them  together,  is  a  pleasing  memento 
to  our  fellow-citizens  generally,  that  neither  the  intrigue  of 
restless  ambition,  nor  the  efforts  of  disorganizing  demagogues, 
can  withdraw  our  affections  from  that  Union  on  which  our 
prosperity  and  happiness  depend." 

A  few  days  sufficed  to  allay  the  panic.  The  return  of  the 
General's  express  from  the  Ohio,  with  the  news  that  no  hog- 
tile  expedition  had  there  been  heard  of,  was  a  damper  to  the 
military  ardor  of  the  militia.  Upon  the  assembling  of  the 
division,  therefore,  General  Jackson  delivered  an  address  to 
them,  praising  their  patriotic  promptitude,  and  dismissed 
them  to  their  homes  again.  This  address,  which  was  so  much 
admired,  that  the  officers  with  one  voice  demanded  its  pub 
lication,  was  as  follows  : — 

"FRIENDS  AND  FELLOW-SOLDIERS: — The  President's  proclamation,  03 
well  as  the  Secretary  of  War's  letter  to  me,  dated  on  the  19th  of  last  month, 
has  given  rise  to  the  preparatory  steps  taken  to  have  the  militia  under  my 
command  in  complete  readiness.  Those  communications  sound  the  tocsin 
of  alarm.  They  are  sufficient  evidence  to  us  that  the  repose  of  our  country 
is  about  to  be  interrupted ;  that  an  illegal  enterprise  has  been  set  on  foot 
by  disappointed,  unprincipled,  ambitious  or  misguided  individuals  •  and  that 
they  are  about  to  be  carried  on  against  the  government  of  Spain,  contrary 
to  the  faith  of  treaties.  Other  reports  state  that  the  adventurers  in  this 
enterprise  were  numerous ;  that  they  had  assembled  at  the  mouth  of  Cum 
berland  river,  in  considerable  force  and  hostile  array ;  that  they  had  for 
their  object  a  separation  of  the  western  from  the  eastern  part  of  the  United 
States ;  and  that  an  attack  would,  in  the  first  place,  be  made  on  New 
Orleans. 

"  These  things,  my  fellow-soldiers,  gave  rise  to  my  orders  of  the  2d 


1807. j     EXPLOSION   OF    BURR'S   PROJECT.         327 

instant,  to  the  end  that  twelve  companies  of  volunteer  corps  might  be  pre 
pared  to  march  on  the  5th.  I  did  at  the  same  time  order  Brigadier  Gen 
eral  James  Winchester  to  take  the  commend.  As  a  previous  and  necessary 
measure  to  any  order  to  march,  I  dispatched  a  confidential  express  to  the 
mouth  of  Cumberland  river  and  to  Massac,  with  a  letter  to  Captain  Bissell, 
the  commanding  officer  at  that  place.  This  express  returned  on  the  8th 
instant,  from  whose  report,  together  with  the  information  given  by  Cap 
tain  Bissell,  we  are  furnished  with  the  very  pleasing  news  that  nothing  in 
that  quarter  is  the  least  alarming.  The  alluded  to  address  from  the  com 
manding  officer  has  been  read  to  you  on  parade.  Under  all  these  circum 
stances,  added  to  the  limited  point  of  view  which  the  orders  given  me 
mu-st  be  interpreted,  I  have  deemed  proper  to  dismiss  the  corps  under  my 
command,  and  direct  them  to  return  to  their  respective  homes  until  their 
country  shall  require  their  services,  and  until  further  orders  shall  be  given. 
The  appearances  of  unanimity,  the  ardor  displayed  on  this  occasion,  and  the 
promptness  with  which  both  the  officers  and  men  have  attended  to  their 
duty  and  orders,  are  sure  pledges  to  their  country  and  to  their  General, 
that  when  emergercy  shall  require,  they  will  fly  with  the  wingg  of  Patrio !<- 
ism  to  support  the  united  government  of  their  country,  and  the  liberty  it 
so  bountifully  affords.  He  also  clearly  sees  the  great  physical  strength  of 
our  country  displayed  much  to  his  satisfaction,  in  the  promptness  and 
alacrity  with  which  General  Winchester,  General  Johnston  and  the  officers 
and  men  now  in  view,  have  shown  in  their  attention  to  his  orders.  Here 
is  the  bulwark  of  our  country  always  sufficient  to  support  and  defend  the 
constituted  authorities  of  our  government.  When  the  insolence  or  vanity 
of  the  Spanish  government  shall  dare  to  repeat  their  insults  on  our  flag,  or 
shall  dare  to  violate  the  sacred  obligations  of  the  good  faith  of  our  treaties 
with  them  ;  or  should  the  disorganizing  TRAITOR  attempt  the  dismember 
ment  of  our  country  or  criminal  breach  of  our  laws,  let  me  ask  what  will 
be  the  effects  of  the  example  given  by  a  tender  of  service  made  by  such 
men  as  compose  the  Invincible  Grays,  commanded,  too,  by  the  father  of  our 
infant  State,  General  James  Robertson? 

"  It  must  and  will  produce  effects  like  these :  The  youthful  patriot  will 
be  invigorated  to  a  proper  sense  of  duty  and  zeal,  and  the  vengeance  of  an 
insulted  country  will  burst  upon  the  devoted  heads  of  any  foreign  invaders, 
or  the  authors  of  such  diabolical  plans.  When  we  behold  aged,  deserving 
and  respectable  men,  whom  the  laws  of  their  country  exempt  from  com 
mon  military  duty,  the  very  first  to  come  forward  in  the  event  of  danger, 
and  whose  situation  is  every  how  comfortable  at  home,  thus  to  act,  what 
must  be  the  degree  of  feeling  and  sensibility  excited  ?  It  is  beyond  com 
prehension,  but  merits  the  highest  encomium. 

"  Friends  and  fellow-soldiers,  I  can  not  dismiss  you  without  making  hon 
orable  mention  of  the  patriotism  of  Captain  Thomas  Williamson,  displayed 


328  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1807. 

on  the  present  occasion,  who,  in  twenty-four  hours  after  the  receipt  of  my 
letter,  notified  me  he  was  ready  to  march  at  the  head  of  a  full  company  of 
volunteers.  Such  promptness  as  this  will  be  a  fit  example  for  the  hardy 
sons  of  freedom,  should  the  constituted  authorities  require  our  service. 

"  Return,  fellow-soldiers,  to  the  bosom  of  your  families,  with  the  best 
wishes  of  your  General,  until  your  country  calls,  and  then  it  is  expected 
you  will  march  on  a  moment's  warning."* 


CHAPTER    XXX. 

GENERAL     JACKSON     IS     SUSPECTED. 

THESE  public  writings  of  the  General  during  the  Burr  - 
panic  are  somewhat  different  in  tone  from  his  private  letters 
of  the  same  period.  He  was  in  a  fog.  He  knew  not  what  to 
make  of  this  unexpected  explosion,  for  which  no  cause  could 
be  discovered.  Moreover,  the  letter  of  the  Secretary  of  War, 
General  Henry  Dearborn,  to  himself,  was  couched  in  language 
at  once  "dubious"  and  offensive.  A  note  which  Jackson  wrote, 
the  day  after  the  receipt  of  the  Secretary's  order,  to  his  friend 
Major  Patten  Anderson,  reveals  his  feelings  at  the  time,  and 
is,  besides,  an  extremely  curious  epistle.  This  was  the  be 
ginning  of  his  difference  with  the  administration  of  Mr.  Jef 
ferson,  which  had  effects  upon  the  history  of  the  country.  To 
Patten  Anderson,  January  4th,  he  wrote  : — 

"I  received  your  note:  its  contents  duly  observed.  The  receipts  as 
directed  I  have  retained.  The  negro  girl  named,  if  likely,  at  a  fair  price, 
I  will  receive. 

"  I  have  received  some  communications  from  the  President  and  Secre 
tary  of  War ;  and  your  presence  is  required  at  my  house  to-morrow  even 
ing,  or  early  Monday  morning,  to  consult  on  means  and  measures,  and  to 
determine  the  latitude  of  the  authority.  It  is  the  merest  old- woman  letter 
from  the  Secretary  that  you  ever  saw.  Your  presence  on  Sunday  evening 

*  From  the  Impartial  Review  of  January  10th  and  17th,  1807. 


1807.]      GENERAL     JACKSON     IS     SUSPECTED.       329 

will  be  expected,  and  your  presence  on  Monday  morning  at  nine  o'clock 
can  not  be  dispensed  with ;  you  must  attend.  I  have  sent  an  express  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Cumberland  and  to  Massac  to  see  and  hear  and  make  ob 
servations.  I  have  wrote  to  Captain  Bissle ;  but  from  information  received 
at  the  moment  the  messenger  was  starting  gives  me  reason  to  believe  that 
Bissle  is  the  host  of  Aaron  Burr.  Wilkinson  has  denounced  Burr  as  a 
traitor,  after  he  found  that  he  was  implicated.  This  is  deep  policy.  He 
has  obtained  thereby  tho  command  of  New  Orleans,  the  gun  boats  armed  ; 
and  his  plan  can  now  be  executed  without  resistance.  But  we  must  be 
there  in  due  time,  before  fortifications  can  be  erected,  and  restore  to  our 
government  New  Orleans  and  the  western  commerce.  You  must  attend. 
Give  to  those  officers  that  you  see  assurances  that  all  volunteer  companies 
will  be  gratefully  accepted  of.  We  must  have  thirty,  thirty-five  or  forty 
companies  into  the  field  in  fifteen  or  twenty  days ;  ten  or  twelve  in  four. 
I  have  it  from  the  President,  I  have  it  from  Dixon,  that  all  volunteers  will 
be  gratefully  accepted.  To-morrow  night  Winchester  will  be  with  me ;  I 
wish  you  there.  The  Secretary  of  War  is  not  fit  for  a  granny.  I  fear  John 
Randolph's  ideas  were  too  correct ;  but  dubious  as  he  has  wrote,  there  are 
sufficient  authority  to  act.  Act  I  will,  and  by  the  next  mail  I  will  give 
him  a  letter  that  will  instruct  him  in  his  duty,  and  convince  him  that  I 
know  mine.  If  convenient,  bring  the  girl  with  you;  and  health  and 
respect. 

"  A.  JACKSON. 

"  Compliments  to  Mrs.  Anderson.  I  must  tell  you  that  Bonaparte  has 
destroyed  the  Prussian  army.  We  ought  to  have  a  little  of  the  emperor's 
energy."* 

At  Washington,  meanwhile,  General  Jackson  was  sus 
pected  of  being  in  league  with  the  alleged  traitors.  Among 
other  letters  received  by  the  government  during  the  panic, 
was  one  from  a  Captain  Head,  of  Pittsburg,  who  declared 
"upon  his  honor,"  that  he  was  "firmly  persuaded"  that 
large  bodies  of  troops  from  Tennessee,  with  General  Andrew 
Jackson  at  their  head,  were  in  full  march  to  join  the  traitors  ! 

*  The  Impartial  Review,  at  this  period,  frequently  devoted  half  its  available 
space  to  the  doings  of  Napoleon.  The  number  which  appeared  next  after  the 
date  of  this  letter  had  a  whole  page  respecting  the  Jena  campaign.  "  The  bat 
tle  of  Jena,"  said  the  Review,  "  has  erased  the  shame  acquired  by  the  battle  of 
Rosbach,  and  thus  in  seven  daj-s  determined  a  campaign  which  has  quenched 
the  dreadful  thirst  for  war  that  tormented  the  court  of  Prussia."  This  shows  sym 
pathy  with  Napoleon. 


330  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1807. 

The  Richmond  Inquirer,  too,  of  December  30th,  1806,  con 
tained  a  hint  of  similar  import.  "  We  are  happy,"  said  the 
editor  of  that  influential  journal,  "  to  hear  that  General 
Wilkinson  had  been  tampered  with  unsuccessfully  ;  we  must 
acknowledge  that  we  have  entertained  involuntary  suspicions 
of  him  as  well  as  of  a  militia  general  in  Tennessee,  who  some 
time  past  issued  a  thundering  proclamation,  rousing  the  re 
sentment  of  the  people  against  the  Spaniards." 

It  was  fortunately  in  the  power  of  General  Jackson's 
friend,  George  W.  Campbell,  member  of  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  from  Nashville,  to  refute  these  calumnies.  Jack 
son  was  accustomed,  for  many  years,  to  write  long  confiden 
tial  letters  to  that  gentleman,  several  of  which  I  have  had 
the  advantage  of  copying.  Among  others,  one  written  in  the 
midst  of  the  Burr  excitement,  containing  comments  upon 
that  affair,  written  in  the  freedom  of  friendship.  This  letter 
Mr.  Campbell  laid  before  President  Jefferson,  who  copied  the 
parts  of  it  relating  to  Burr ;  which  were  afterwards  pub 
lished.  The  perusal  of  this  letter  it  probably  was  that  in 
duced  Mr.  Jefferson  to  declare  so  emphatically,  that  Tennes 
see  was  "  faithful,"  and  "  particularly  General  Jackson." 
The  original  letter,  yellow  with  age,  torn  with  its  various 
adventures  and  journeys,  and  bearing  upon  it  the  formal  cer 
tificate  of  the  facts  just  stated,  is  still  preserved,  and  was 
copied  from  the  original  for  insertion  here. 
• 

ANDREW   JACKSON   TO   GEORGE   W.    CAMPBELL. 

"  (Confidential.) — The  late  denunciation  of  Aaron  Burr  as  a  traitor  has 
excited  great  surprise  and  general  indignation  against  Burr.  Still  from  the 
opinion  possessed  of  the  accuser  (Wilkinson)  many  there  are  who  wait  for 
the  proof  before  they  will  pronounce  him  guilty  of  the  charge.  One  thing 
is  generally  believed,  that  if  Burr  is  guilty  Wilkinson  has  participated  in 
the  treason. 

"  The  public  mind  has  been  much  agitated  from  various  reports  of  Burr 
having  been  met  at  the  mouth  of  Cumberland  river  with  one  hundred  boats 
and  one  thousand  armed  men ;  and  it  was  stated  as  a  fact,  that  the  captain 
at  Massac  and  all  the  men  were  going  with  him.  Subsequent  reports  stated 
they  had  gone.  An  express  which  I  had  started  on  receipt  of  the  Secre- 


1807.]      GENERAL     JACKSON     IS     SUSPECTED.      331 

tary  of  War's  letter  of  the has  returned,  and  states  that  Burr  was 

at  Fort  Massac  on  the  30th  ult,  in  company  with  ten  boats,  six  men 
on  board  of  each,  without  arms  or  anything  that  can  afford  suspicion, 
and  that  Captain  Bessel  has  been  doing  his  duty  as  a  valiant  officer.  I 
had  ordered  out  twelve  companies  of  volunteers  on  the  receipt  of  the  Sec 
retary  of  War's  letter  to  check  the  adventurers,  which  on  return  of  express 
I  dismissed. 

"  I  shall  send  you  a  copy  of  the  Secretary  of  War's  letter  to  me  by  next 
mail,  with  the  remarks  I  intend  making  on  it  It  is  couched  in  such  offen 
sive  terms  that  shows  he  is  unfit  to  discharge  the  duties  of  his  station,  and 
that  he  is  devoid  of  all  knowledge  on  perilous  occasions  that  ought  to  com 
pose  the  general  or  commander.  I  hope  I  know  my  duty  as  a  soldier, 
and  the  first  duty  of  a  good  citizen,  when  danger  threatens,  to  attend  to 
the  safety  of  his  country.  This  being  done,  I  will  pay  my  respects  to  the 
Secretary  of  War,  and  duly  note  his  letter,  which  I  will  enclose  you  by 
next  mail,  and  which  I  hope  as  a  brother*  and  a  friend  you  will  give  that 
publicity  to  that  I  may  direct. 

"  Will  you  permit  me  to  bring  to  your  view  a  subject  that  has  been 
made  known  to  me  as  a  brother  ?  I  mean  the  dispute  that  is  likely  to 
arise  between  you  and  General  Kobertson  respecting  a  piece  of  land.  This 
dispute  I  would  advise  to  be  left  between  two  or  three  brothers  to  decide. 
Should  it  get  into  court  it  will  be  expensive,  and  create  passions  that  never 
ought  to  exist  between  brothers ;  and  I  have  no  doubt  the  dispute  can  be 
as  well  ended,  and  justice  be  as  much  attained  by  the  verdict  of  three 
brothers  as  any  other  way.  The  land  to  General  Robertson  is  a  great 
thing ;  he  has  sold  it,  and  made  a  general  warrantee,  and  this,  he  states,  I 
think,  before  he  knew  of  your  claim.  He  also  states  that  General  Arm 
strong  is  willing  to  return  you  your  money,  with  interest,  on  your  relin 
quishing  to  General  Robertson  your  claim  to  this  tract.  And  there  is  five 
thousand  acres  on  Elk  that  can  be  had  to  satisfy  the  balance  of  the  judg 
ment. 

"  I  hope,  sir,  you  will  view  these  observations  as  from  the  heart  of  a 
friend,  who  wishes  you  both  equally  well,  and  who  does  not  wish  to  see 
you  in  law,  unless  when  the  rules  laid  down  by  which  we  are  united  can 
not  obtain  that  justice  that  each  individual  is  entitled  to.  I  have  never 
heard  from  either  how  the  right  has  been  derived,  neither  do  I  know  how 
justice  will  decide ;  but  as  the  thing  is  between  two  brothers,  and  two  that 
I  highly  esteem,  and  who  I  do  know  highly  esteem  each  other,  I  would 
be  truly  sorry  to  see  anything  arise  that  would  create  a  bitterness.  And 
if  you  go  to  law,  I  know  it  will  have  this  effect,  and  have  others  also  that 
would  be  painful  to  me  as  a  friend  of  both  to  see. 

*  Campbell  and  Jackson  were  both  Free  Masons. 


332  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1807. 

"  The  General  appears  much  hurt  at  you  making  the  purchase,  after  you 
knew  (as  he  states)  that  he  had  purchased;  from  which  I  am  fearful,  un 
less  it  is  settled  by  two  brothers  or  three,  that  it  will  lead  on  statements 
that  may  do  neither  of  you  any  benefit.  For  these  reasons,  I  have  told 
him,  as  I  now  tell  you,  the  proper  way  will  be  to  leave  it  to  three  brethren. 
Such  you  can  find  as  are  legal  characters.  This  he  states  he  is  willing  to 
do,  and  I  hope  it  will  meet  your  wishes. 

"  I  have  no  doubt  but  from  the  pains  that  has  been  taken  to  circulate 
reports,  it  will  be  rumored  that  I  am  on  full  march  to  unite  with  Burr.  This 
I  know  you  never  will  believe  until  you  have  it  from  myself,  or  from  such 
a  source  that  you  know  can  not  err.  Should  you  ever  hear  that  I  am  em 
barked  in  a  cause  inimical  to  my  country,  believe  it  not.  Should  you  hear 
that  treasonable  intentions  have  come  to  my  knowledge,  and  that  I  have 
been"  [torn],  "  believe  them  not ;  or  that  I  would  not  put  any  man  out  of 
existence  that  would  name  such  a  thing  to  me,  without  on  the  ground  of 
discovering  it  to  the  proper  authorities,  believe  them  not.  And  if  Burr 
has  any  treasonable  intentions  in  view,  he  is  the  basest  of  all  human  beings. 
I  will  tell  you  why.  He  always  held  out  the  idea  of  settling  Washita,  un 
less  a  war  with  Spain ;  in  that  event,  he  held  out  the  idea  that  from  his  in 
timacy  with  the  Secretary  of  War,  he  would  obtain  an  appointment ;  and 
if  he  did  he  would  revolutionize  Mexico. 

"  About  the  10th  of  November,  Captain called  at  my  house,  and 

after  a  stay  of  a  night  and  part  of  a  day,  introduced  the  subject  of  the  ad 
venturers  ;  and,  in  part,  stated  these  intentions  were  to  divide  the  Union. 
I  sternly  asked  how  they  w,ould  effect  it.  He  replied,  by  seizing  New 
Orleans  and  the  bank,  shutting  the  port,  conquering  Mexico,  and  uniting 
the  western  part  of  the  Union  to  the  conquered  country.  I,  perhaps  with 
warmth,  asked  him  how  this  was  to  be  effected.  He  replied,  by  the  aid  of 
the  federal  troops,  and  the  General  (Wilkinson)  at  their  head.  I  asked  if  he 
had  this  from  the  General.  He  said  he  had  not.  I  asked  him  if  Colonel 
Burr  was  in  the  scheme.  He  answered  he  did  not  know,  nor  was  he  in 
formed  that  he  was ;  that  he  barely  knew  Colonel  Burr,  but  never  had  any 
conversation.  I  asked  him  how  he  knew  this,  and  from  whom  he  got  his 
information.  He  said  from  Colonel ,  in  New  York. 

"  Knowing  that  Colonel  Burr  was  well  acquainted  with  him,  it  rushed 
into  my  mind  like  lightning !  Considering  what  he  had  held  out  to  me, 
General  Robertson  and  General  Overton,  and  the  hospitality  I  had  shown 
him,  I  viewed  it  as  base  conduct  to  us  all,  and  heightened  the  baseness  of 
his  intended  crimes  if  he  was  really  about  to  become  a  traitor.  I  sat  down 
and  wrote  to  Governor  Smith  and  Dr.  Dixson.  I  wrote  to  Governor 
Claiborne  to  put  his  citadel  in  a  state  of  defense,  without  naming  names, 
except  Wilkason.  When  this  was  done,  I  wrote  Colonel  Burr  in  strong 
terms — my  suspicions  of  him,  and  until  they  were  clear  from  my  mind,  no 


]  807.]        GENERAL    JACKSON     SUSPECTED.  333 

farther  intimacy  was  to  exist  between  us.  I  made  my  suspicions  known 
to  G-eneral  Robertson  and  some  others.  Not  long  after.  I  received  his  an 
swer,  with  the  most  sacred  pledges  that  he  had  not,  nor  never  had,  any 
views  inimical  or  hostile  to  the  United  States,  and  whenever  he  was  charged 
with  the  intention  of  separating  the  Union,  the  idea  of  insanity  must  be 
ascribed  to  him.  After  his  acquittal  in  Kentucky  he  returned  to  this  coun 
try,  and,  to  all  that  named  the  subject,  made  the  same  pledges,  and  said  he 
had  no  object  in  view  but  was  sanctioned  by  legal  authority,  and  still  said 
that,  when  necessary,  he  would  produce  the  Secretary  of  War's  orders — that 
he  wanted  none  but  young  men  of  talents  to  go  with  him ;  with  such  he 
wanted  to  make  his  settlement,  and  it  would  have  a  tendency  to  draw  to 
it  wealth  and  character.  For  these  reasons,  from  the  pledges  made,  if  he 
is  a  traitor,  he  is  the  basest  that  ever  did  commit  treason,  and  being  tore 
to  pieces,  and  scattered  to  the  four  winds  of  heaven,  would  be  too  good  for 
him.  But  we  will  leave  him  for  time  and  evidence  to  verify  his  hue.  I 
have  given  you  the  outlines,  and  a  few  weeks  will  give  you  the  proof. 

"  I  have  no  doubt  tired  your  patience,  but  I  must  trespass  a  little  far 
ther,  and  request  your  attention  to  a  little  private  business.  Some  posts 
ago  I  wrote  to  Judge  Anderson  to  send  me  on  a  deed  for  six  hundred  and 
forty  acres  of  land,  and  enclose  the  courses.  By  same  mail  I  wrote  to  Dr. 
Dixson,  and  enclosed  him  also  a  copy  of  the  courses.  I  am  fearful  these 
letters  have  not  went  to  hand,  for  which  reason  I  take  the  liberty  of  send 
ing  you  the  courses,  and  request  that  you  will  obtain  a  deed  from  Judge 
Anderson,  and  send  it  on  to  me.  I  have  sold  the  land,  and  the  deed  was 
to  have  been  made  the  first  of  this  month.  Thus  I  wrote  the  Judge,  and  I 
know,  if  he  received  the  letter,  he  has  sent  it  on,  and  it  has  been  lost  on 
the  way.  My  dear  sir,  your  attention  to  this  business  will  confer  a  lasting 
obligation. 

"  Present  my  compliments  to  Mason,  Blount  and  any  others  that  may 
inquire  after  me.  With  friendly  wishes  for  your  welfare  and  happiness, 
believe  me  to  be,  with  high  esteem,  yours, 

"January  15th,  1807.  ANDREW  JACKSON. 

"  P.  S. — This  letter  for  your  own  eyes." 

A  few  words  more,  and  we  may  dismiss  this  Burr  mystery. 
Further  reflection  revived  in  General  Jackson's  breast  some 
thing  of  his  former  friendship  for  Burr,  and  convinced  him 
that  no  treason  had  been  intended.  A  few  months  later,  we 
find  him  at  Richmond,  whither  he  had  been  summoned  as  a 
witness  in  the  trial  of  Burr.  There  he  harangued  the  crowd 
in  the  Capitol  Square,  defending  Burr,  and  angrily  denounc 
ing  Jefferson  as  a  persecutor.  There  are  those  living  who 
VOL.  i. — 22 


334  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1807. 

heard  him  do  this.  He  made  himself  so  conspicuous  as  Burr's 
champion  at  Kichmond,  that  Mr.  Madison,  the  Secretary  of 
State,  took  deep  offense  at  it,  and  remembered  it  to  Jackson's 
disadvantage  five  years  later,  when  he  was  President  of  the 
United  States,  with  a  war  on  his  hands.  For  the  same  rea 
son,  I  presume,  it  was  that  Jackson  was  not  called  upon  to 
give  testimony  upon  the  trial. 

Burr,  it  seems,  was  equally  satisfied  with  Jackson.  Blen- 
nerhasset,  in  that  part  of  his  diary  which  records  his  prison 
interviews  with  Burr,  says  :  "  We  passed  to  the  topics  of  our 
late  adventures  on  the  Mississippi,  in  which  Burr  said  little, 
but  declared  he  did  not  know  of  any  reason  to  blame  General 
Jackson,  of  Tennessee,  for  anything  he  had  done  or  omitted. 
But  he  declares  he  will  not  lose  a  day  after  the  favorable 
issue  at  the  Capitol  (his  acquittal),  of  which  he  has  no  doubt, 
to  direct  his  entire  attention  to  setting  up  his  projects  (which 
have  only  been  suspended)  on  a  better  model,  c  in  which  work', 
he  says,  '  he  has  even  here  made  some  progress/  '' 

Jackson's  feelings  during  his  detention  at  .Richmond  were 
partly  expressed  in  one  of  his  letters  to  his  friend  Anderson, 
dated  June  16th,  of  which  the  following  is  a  copy  : — 

"  I  am  still  detained  here ;  and  at  what  time  I  will  be  able  to  leave  it  is 
uncertain.  General  Wilkinson,  after  detaining  the  court  for  twenty  days, 
has  at  length  arrived,  and  the  bills  against  Burr  are  sent  up  to  the  Grand 
Jury.  Whether  the  testimony  will  be  sufficient  to  convince  the  minds  of 
the  Grand  Jury  that  guilt  exists,  either  as  to  treason  or  misdemeanor,  is 
problematical.  I  am  more  convinced  than  ever  that  treason  never  was 
intended  by  Burr ;  but  if  ever  it  was,  you  know  my  wishes — that  he  may 
be  hung.  I  am  still  more  convinced  that  whatever  may  have  been  the 
project  of  Burr,  James  Wilkinson  has  went  hand  in  hand  with  him  •  but, 
j&a&m-like*,  when  he  found  that  such  was  the  integrity  and  virtue  of  the 
western  citizens,  that  a  sufficient  force  could  not  be  obtained,  he  became 
the  patriot  to  save  himself  from  the  frowns  and  indignation  of  an  insulted 
people;  and  to  bring  about  that  event  by  a  lawless  tyranny,  which  he 
found  could  not  be  carried  into  effect  by  force.  There  are  a  variety  of 
opinions  on  the  subject,  which  a  few  days  will  furnish  sufficient  light  for  the 
impartial  mind  to  act  on.  All  I  wish  is,  that  if  guilt  ever  did  exist,  that  all 

*  Eaton  was  a  leading  witness  against  Burr. 


1807.]       GENERAL     JACKSON     SUSPECTED.  335 

concerned  may  be  punished ;  if  they  are  innocent,  that  they  may  be  Ac 
quitted.  But  I  have  no  opinion  that  it  is  just  to  sacrifice  one  as  a  peace- 
offering  to  policy,  and  permit  others  of  equal  guilt  to  pass  with  impunity. 
I  am  sorry  to  say  that  this  thing  has,  in  part,  assumed  the  shape  of  a  po 
litical  persecution,  and  for  which  I  refer  you  to  the  papers  of  this  place.  I 
am  told  you  receive  them.  A  subpoena  has  been  sent  on  for  the  President, 
with  a  duces  tecum.  What  may  be  the  return  I  know  not ;  but  it  appears 
that  Mr.  Hay,*  by  a  change,  is  placed  in  the  opposite  situation  that  he  acted 
in  when  Calandar  was  tried ;  and  his  own  doctrine  is  used  against  him. 
As  soon  as  the  Grand  Jury  have  acted  on  this  thing,  I  will  advise  you 
thereof. 

"  At  the  race,  I  hope  you  will  see  Mrs.  Jackson ;  tell  her  not  to  be 
uneasy.  I  will  be  home  as  soon  as  my  obedience  to  the  precept  of  my 
country  will  permit.  I  have  only  to  add,  as  to  the  race,  that  the  mare  of 
Williams  is  thought  here  to  be  a  first-rate  animal  of  her  size ;  but,  if  she 
can  be  put  up,  she  will  fail  in  one  heat.  It  will  be  then  proper  to  put  her 
up  to  all  she  knows  at  once. — Adieu." 

This  letter  was  only  a  very  partial  revelation  of  Jackson's 
feelings.  In  truth,  he  went  all  lengths  in  defense  of  Burr  ; 
nor  was  it  possible  for  him  to  support  any  man  in  any  other 
way.  Toward  Wilkinson,  whom  he  regarded  as  the  be  tray  ei 
of  Burr,  his  anger  burned  with  such  fury  that  if  the  two 
men  had  met  in  a  place  convenient,  the  meeting  could  hardly 
have  had  any  other  result  than  a — "  difficulty."  An  incident 
which  actually  did  occur  at  Kichmond,  during  the  trial,  sug 
gested  this  remark.  Samuel  Swartwout,  Burr's  confidential 
secretary,  aid-de-camp,  embassador,  and  factotum,  was  walk 
ing,  one  day,  in  a  street  of  Eichmond,  of  which  the  pavement 
was  too  narrow  to  admit  of  the  convenient  passing  of  two 
persons.  What  should  he  encounter  there  but  the  portly 
person  of  General  James  Wilkinson  !  Swartwout  not  only 
refused  to  give  way  to  the  General,  but,  on  finding  himself 
in  close  proximity  to  him,  fell  into  a  paroxysm  of  disgust  and 
rage,  and  shouldered  the  great  Wilkinson  into  the  middle  of 
the  street.  Jackson  was  wild  with  delight  when  he  heard  of 
it.  There  was  no  man,  out  of  his  own  circle  of  Tennessee 
friends,  that  General  Jackson  was  more  affectionately  devoted 

*  Mr,  Hay  was  the  prosecuting  attorney. 


336  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1807. 

to  than  he  was  to  Samuel  Swartwout ;  and  this  peculiar 
fondness,  sustained  as  it  was  by  Mr.  Swartwout' s  winning 
cast  of  character,  dated  from  that  push.  A  lucky  push  it 
proved  for  Swartwout  twenty  years  after. 

General  Jackson  returned  home  immediately  after  the  in 
dictment  of  Burr  and  Blennerhasset  for  treason.  The  editor 
of  the  Impartial  Review  thanks  him  for  communicating  the 
news  of  the  indictment,  as  he  passed  through  Nashville,  July 
14th,  on  his  way  home  from  Kichmond. 

From  that  time  forward,  Jackson  was  known  as  a  mal 
content  with  the  administration.  In  the  presidential  election 
of  1808,  he  openly  avowed  a  preference  for  Monroe  over  Mad 
ison,  who  was  the  candidate  of  the  Kepublican  party  and  of 
Jefferson.  Monroe  had  shared  with  Chancellor  Livingston 
the  credit  of  the  negotiations  which  ended  in  the  purchase  of 
Louisiana  ;  and,  on  being  transferred  to  London,  had  won 
general  applause  by  the  spirited  manner  in  which  he  protested 
against  the  Orders  in  Council.  Keturning  to  the  United 
States  in  1808  he  was  a  formidable  rival  to  Madison  for  the 
suffrages  of  the  Kepublicans.  In  the  conclaves  of  the  party 
his  " claims"  were  admitted ;  but  postponed,  with  the  "under 
standing"  (useful  word  !  meaning  nothing — meaning  all)  that 
eight  years  later  he  should  be  the  candidate  of  the  party. 
They  had  formerly  an  amicable  and  pleasant  way  of  arrang 
ing  these  little  differences.  Until  recently,  the  presidency 
was  always  bespoke  twenty-four  years  ahead — as  shall,  by 
and  by,  be  shown.  Whether  General  Jackson  carried  his 
opposition  to  Madison  so  far  as  not  to  vote  for  him  when  he 
became  the  Republican  candidate  is  not  known.  It  is  certain, 
however,  that  his  preference  for  Monroe  over  Madison  was 
known  to  both  those  gentlemen,  and  influenced  the  conduct 
of  both. 


1809.]  ADOPTION    OF    A    SON     AND     HEIE.  337 

( 

CHAPTER    XXXI. 

ADOPTION     OF     A     SON     AND     HEIR. 

THE  Hermitage  was  more  a  hermitage  than  ever  after 
these  events.  The  enemies  of  the  Hermit  had  gained  a  cer 
tain  triumph  over  him.  I  observe  in  the  list  of  those  who 
assisted  in  the  burning  of  Burr's  effigy  at  Nashville,  the  name 
of  Thomas  Swann  ;  which  favors  the  conjecture  that  the  zeal 
against  Burr  was,  in  some  degree,  a  manifestation  of  enmity 
to  the  man  who  had  been  so  conspicuously  his  friend.  Ill- 
affected  toward  his  former  political  associates,  an  object  of 
distrust  or  aversion,  or  both,  to  the  administration,  his  home 
enemies  cowed,  perhaps,  by  the  late  duel,  but  in  no  degree 
conciliated,  General  Jackson  now  withdrew  from  commercial 
business,  and  devoted  himself  exclusively  to  the  affairs  of  his 
fine  plantation  ;  happy  in  a  vocation  of  which  he  was  master, 
and  which  kept  him  always  where  alone  he  was  ever  con 
tented — at  home. 

He  had  a  very  happy  home.  Mrs.  Jackson,  besides  being 
an  excellent  manager  and  mistress,  was  also  a  kind  and  jovial 
soul.  She  had  a  wonderful  memory,  which  contained  a  great 
store  of  anecdotes  and  tales.  She  could  remember  the  Cum 
berland  settlements  from  their  infancy  ;  had  shared  the  perils 
of  her  father's  famous  river  voyage  ;  had  lived  through  that 
eventful  period  when  the  day  was  exceptional  in  which  there 
was  no  alarm,  and  the  week  fortunate  when  no  one  was  slain 
by  Indians  ;  had  heard  her  father,  and  his  friend,  Daniel 
Boone,  and  the  other  heroes  of  the  wilderness,  recount  their 
adventures  and  escapes.  All  these  things  it  was  her  delight 
to  tell  to  the  younger  guests  of  the  Hermitage,  whose  delight 
it  was  to  hear  her.  Nor  was  she  so  entirely  illiterate  as  has 
been  alleged.  I  have  nine  of  her  letters  in  my  collection,  one 
of  which  is  eight  foolscap  pages  long.  The  spelling  of  these 
epistles  is  bad,  of  course,  and  the  grammar  not  faultless  ; 
but  their  existence  is  at  least  sufficient  to  refute  a  common 


338  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1809. 

opinion  in  Tennessee,  that  Mrs.  Jackson  could  not  write. 
Unlearned,  however,  she  was,  in  the  lore  of  the  schools, 
though  not  so  in  that  of  the  woods,  the  dairy,  the  kitchen 
and  the  cabin.  The  negro  women  at  the  Hermitage,  who 
remember  her  ways  and  tastes,  say  that  there  was  nothing  on 
the  estate  that  she  was  so  proud  of  as  the  remarkably  fine 
spring  that  gushed  behind  the  old  block  house,  and  which 
was  inclosed,  when  the  General  could  afford  the  expense,  to 
form  her  dairy. 

It  is  pleasant,  too,  to  know  that  she  was  fond  of,  and  ex 
celled  in,  the  hearty  diversions  of  the  frontier  ;  particularly 
in  the  vigorous,  old-fashioned  dances.  She  was  a  short  and 
stout  woman.  The  General  was  tall  and  slender.  The  spec 
tacle  is  said  to  have  been  extremely  curious  when  they  danced 
a  reel  together,  which  they  often  did  ;  a  reel  of  the  olden 
time  that  would  shake  to  pieces  the  frequenters  of  modern 
ball-rooms.  The  time  came  when  she  imbibed  opinions  (now 
giving  way  everywhere  before  more  enlightened  ones)  which 
place  a  ban  upon  diversions  which  are  both  innocent  and  pre 
servative  of  innocence.  But  in  these  earlier  years,  she  was  a 
gay,  merry,  natural  human  being ;  happy  herself,  and  a 
source  of  happiness  to  all  around  her. 

Her  husband  loved  her  with  that  entireness  which  belongs 
to  the  love  of  men,  and  to  them  only,  whose  lives  are  pure, 
from  puberty  to  gray  hairs.  There  was  a  certain  stateliness, 
or  reserve,  too,  in  their  intercourse — a  something  as  different 
as  possible  from  that  slangy  familiarity  of  recent  times,  which 
is  employed  to  cover  up  incompetence  and  awkwardness,  and 
which  is  death  to  the  pleasure,  no  less  than  to  the  dignity, 
of  social  converse.  Self-respect,  and  respect  for  one  another, 
elevated  and  preserved  their  mutual  love.  It  is  true,  never 
theless,  that  after  dinner  they  sat  by  the  fire,  both  smoking  a 
long  reed  pipe,  of  the  kind  still  universally  used  in  the  south 
ern  States. 

Children  only  were  wanting  to  complete  their  home.  But 
children  were  denied  them  ;  a  sore  grief  to  both,  for  both 
loved  children,  and  desired  ever  to  have  them  in  their  house. 


1809.]         ADOPTION    OF     A     SON     AND     HEIR.  339 

The  circle  of  Mrs.  Jackson's  relatives  was  so  extensive  that 
some  of  her  young  nephews  and  nieces  were  almost  always  at 
the  Hermitage  ;  and  all  her  relatives  were  his.  He  counted 
it  among  the  chief  circumstances  of  his  happiness  that,  sepa 
rated  as  he  was  from  his  own  kindred  by  distance,  he  found 
in  hers  all  that  his  heart  and  home  required. 

About  the  year  1809  it  chanced  that  twins  were  born  to 
one  of  Mrs.  Jackson's  brothers,  Savern  Donelson.  The 
mother,  not  in  perfect  health,  was  scarcely  able  to  sustain 
both  these  new  comers.  Mrs.  Jackson,  partly  to  relieve  her 
sister,  and  partly  with  the  wish  to  provide  a  son  and  heir  for 
her  husband,  took  one  of  the  infants,  when  it  was  but  a  few 
days  old,  home  to  the  Hermitage.  The  General  soon  became 
extremely  fond  of  the  boy,  gave  him  his  own  name,  adopted 
him,  and  treated  him  thenceforth  to  the  last  hour  of  his  life, 
not  as  a  son  merely,  but  as  an  only  son.  This  boy  is  the 
present  Andrew  Jackson,  Esq.,  of  Louisiana,  inheritor  of  the 
General's  estate  and  name,  master  of  the  Hermitage  until  it 
recently  became  the  property  of  the  State  of  Tennessee. 

And  here  we  see  the  immense  difference  between  a  biog 
raphy  and  a  life.  The  arrival  at  General  Jackson's  house  of 
this  plump  and  ruddy  infant  was  an  event  concerning  which 
it  is  impossible  to  say  much  in  a  work  of  this  kind.  But,  to 
Andrew  Jackson,  how  much  more  important  the  day  than 
any  8th  of  January  or  4th  of  March  !  This  boy,  next  to  his 
wife,  was  the  delight  of  his  life,  the  hope  of  his  old  age.  This 
boy  was  to  perpetuate  his  name  and  preserve  his  estate  after 
his  death.  He  was  the  solace  of  ten  thousand  hours  when 
victories  and  honors  seemed  but  the  trivial  incidents  of  the 
past.  For  this  boy's  little  rosy  face,  peeping  from  window  or 
piazza,  it  was  that  he  looked  on  coming  in  sight  of  his  home 
after  a  long  absence.  And  this  inconceivably  great  addition 
to  his  happiness  and  well-being,  this  permanently  influencing 
fact  we  must  pass  over  with  little  more  than  mention.  So 
true  is  it  that  only  the  masters  of  fiction  can  portray  human 
life  with  an  approach  to  correctness. 

A  few  years  later  another  little  nephew  of  Mrs.  Jackson's, 


340  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1809. 

the  well-known  Andrew  Jackson  Donelson,  became  an  inmate 
of  the  Hermitage,  and  was  educated  by  General  Jackson. 
The  visitor  then  could  often  see  the  General  seated  in  his 
rocking  chair,  with  a  chubby  boy  wedged  in  on  each  side  of 
him,  and  a  third,  perhaps,  in  his  lap,  while  he  was  trying  to 
read  the  newspaper.  This  man,  so  irascible  sometimes,  and 
sometimes  so  savage,  was  never  so  much  as  impatient  with 
children,  wife  or  servants.  This  was  very  remarkable.  It 
used  to  astonish  people  who  came  for  the  first  time  to  the 
Hermitage  to  find  that  its  master,  of  whose  fierce  ways  and 
words  they  had  heard  so  much,  was,  indeed,  the  gentlest  and 
tenderest  of  men.  They  discovered,  in  fact,  that  there  were 
two  Jacksons  :  Jackson  militant  and  Jackson  triumphant  ; 
Jackson  crossed  and  Jackson  having  his  own  way  ;  Jackson, 
his  mastership  unquestioned,  and  Jackson  with  a  rival  near 
the  throne. 

It  was  astonishing,  too,  to  notice  how  instantaneously  he 
could  change  from  one  Jackson  to  the  other.  He  was  riding 
along  one  day  with  his  wife,  when  some  careless  wagoners  drove 
their  lumbering  vehicle  against  his  carriage,  giving  the  lady  a 
somewhat  violent  jerk.  Instantly  Jackson  broke  forth  with  a 
volley  of  execrations  so  fierce  and  terrific  that  the  wagoners, 
who  were  themselves  the  roughest  of  the  rough,  shrunk  invol 
untarily  under  their  wagon,  amazed  and  speechless.  They 
drove  away  without  attempting  to  reply,  feeling  themselves 
hopelessly  outdone  in  their  own  speciality. 

On  this  occasion,  as  on  many  similar  ones,  he  was  not  a 
tenth  part  as  angry  as  he  seemed.  He  was  never  so  angry  as 
to  give  his  enemy  an  advantage.  Another  wagon  story  occurs 
to  me  at  this  moment,  which  shows  how  prudent  he  could  be 
until  it  was  safe  to  give  way  to  his  feelings.  The  wagoners, 
it  may  be  premised,  were  in  those  times  what  boatmen  have 
since  been  in  the  western  country,  a  numerous,  important, 
peculiar  and  reckless  class  of  men,  with  something  of  the 
gipsy,  much  of  the  Indian,  and  a  little  of  the  highwayman, 
in  their  composition.  For  many  years,  the  great  West  de 
pended  for  its  supplies  of  manufactured  goods  chiefly  upon 


1809.]        ADOPTION     OF     A     SON     AND     HEIR.  341 

wagon  and  pack-horse  trains,  conducted  by  these  wild  fellows 
from  the  Atlantic  ports  across  the  mountains.  One  of  their 
expedients  for  beguiling  the  tedium  of  their  long  journeys  was 
to  stop  solitary  travelers  and  compel  him  to  do  something  for 
their  amusement.  As  General  Jackson  was  riding  along  the 
lonely  wilderness  road  between  Nashville  and  Knoxville  one 
day,  he  was  hailed  by  two  burly  wagoners,  who  ordered  him 
to  get  out  of  his  carriage  and  dance  for  them.  Feigning  sim 
plicity,  he  said  he  could  not  dance  without  slippers,  and  his 
slippers  were  in  a  trunk  strapped  behind  his  carriage.  They 
told  him  to  get  his  slippers.  He  opened  his  trunk,  took  out 
a  pair  of  pistols,  and  advancing  before  them  with  one  in  each 
hand,  said,  with  that  awful  glare  in  his  eye  before  which  few 
men  could  stand  : — 

"Now,  you  infernal  villains,  you  shall  dance  for  me. 
Dance,  .  .  .  DANCE  !" 

He  made  them  dance  in  the  most  lively  manner,  and  fin 
ished  the  interview  by  giving  them  a  moral  lecture,  couched 
in  language  that  wagoners  understood,  and  delivered  with— 
energy. 

That  curious  tobacco  box  story,  still  often  told  in  Ten 
nessee,  and  probably  founded  in  truth,  if  not  wholly  true, 
illustrates  the  same  trait.  The  incident  occurred  at  Clovei 
Bottom,  on  the  great  day  of  the  races,  when  the  ground  was 
crowded  with  men  and  horses.  It  was  customary  for  the  land 
lord  of  the  tavern  there  to  prepare  a  table  in  the  open  air,  two 
hundred  feet  long,  for  the  accommodation  of  the  multitude 
attending.  On  the  day  alluded  to,  several  races  having  been 
run,  there  was  a  pause  for  dinner,  which  pause  was  duly  im 
proved.  The  long  table  was  full  of  eager  diners  ;  General 
Jackson  presiding  at  one  end  ;  a  large  number  of  men  stand 
ing  along  the  sides  of  the  table  waiting  for  a  chance  to  sit 
down  ;  and  all  the  negroes  of  the  neighborhood  employed  as 
waiters  who  could  look  at  a  plate  without  its  breaking  itself. 
A  roaring  tornado  of  horse-talk  half  drowned  the  mighty 
clatter  of  knives  and  forks.  After  the  dinner  had  proceeded 
awhile,  it  was  observed  by  General  Jackson  and  those  who  sat 


342  LIFE     OF     ANDKEW     JACKSON.  [1809. 

near  him,  that  something  was  the  matter  near  the  other  end 
of  the  table — a  fight,  probably.  There  was  a  rushing  together 
of  men,  and  evident  excitement.  Now,  "  difficulties"  of  this 
kind  were  so  common  at  that  day,  whenever  large  numbers  of 
men  were  gathered  together,  that  the  disturbance  was  little 
more  than  mentioned,  if  alluded  to  at  all,  at  Jackson's  end  of 
the  table,  where  sat  the  magnates  of  the  race.  At  length, 
some  one,  in  passing  by,  was  heard  to  say,  in  evident  allusion 
to  the  difficulty : 

"  They'll  finish  Patten  Anderson  this  time,  I  do  expect." 

The  whole  truth  flashed  upon  Jackson,  and  he  sprang  up 
like  a  man  galvanized.  How  to  get  to  the  instant  rescue  of 
his  friend  !  To  force  a  path  through  the  crowd  along  the 
sides  of  the  table  would  have  taken  time.  A  moment  later 
and  the  tall  General  might  have  been  seen  striding  toward 
the  scene  of  danger  on  the  top  of  the  table,  wading  through 
the  dishes,  and  causing  hungry  men  to  pause  astounded,  with 
morsels  suspended  in  air.  As  he  neared  the  crowd,  putting 
his  hand  behind  him  into  his  coat  pocket — an  ominous  move 
ment  in  those  days,  and  susceptible  of  but  one  interpretation 
— he  opened  his  tobacco  box,  and  shut  it  with  a  click  so  loud 
that  it  was  heard  by  some  of  the  bystanders. 

"  I'm  coming,  Patten  !"  roared  the  General. 

"  Don't  fire,"  cried  some  of  the  spectators. 

The  cry  of  don't  fire  caught  the  ears  of  the  hostile  crowd, 
who  looked  up,  and  saw  a  mad  Colossus  striding  toward 
them,  with  his  right  hand  behind  him,  and  slaughter  de 
picted  in  every  lineament  of  his  countenance.  They  scat 
tered  instantaneously,  leaving  Anderson  alone  and  un 
harmed  ! 

Poor  Anderson  escaped  that  day,  but  his  time  was  at 
hand.  No  Tennesseean,  who  can  remember  as  far  back  as 
1810,  can  have  forgotten  the  killing  of  Patten  Anderson,  and 
the  exciting  trial  of  the  murderers.  I  introduce  it  here  for 
the  sake  of  recording  a  single  remark  that  General  Jackson 
made  in  giving  his  testimony  on  that  occasion  ;  a  remark 
that  has  clung  to  the  memory  of  my  informant,  a  lawyer  who 


1809.]         ADOPTION     OF     A     SON     AND     HEIR.  343 

attended  the  trial,  though  he  has  forgotten  almost  every 
thing  else  that  was  said  and  done. 

The  two  brothers  Anderson  had  two  enemies,  a  father 
and  son,  named  Magness.  The  feud  originated  in  a  transac 
tion  in  land ;  the  Magnesses,  it  is  said,  having  sold  to  the 
Andersons  a  forged  warrant  for  a  valuable  tract.  Be  that  as 
it  may,  these  four  men  were  inflamed  with  hatred,  two 
against  two.  The  altercations  between  them  were  frequent 
and  bitter  ;  until  it  seemed  as  if  nothing  but  blood  could 
appease  the  wrath  that  burned  in  all  their  hearts.  They 
were  all  to  meet  at  court  on  a  certain  day,  when,  it  was 
hoped,  their  case  would  be  finally  adjudicated,  and  the  mat 
ter  disposed  of  for  ever.  A  foreboding  of  evil  oppressed  the 
mind  of  Patten  Anderson  as  he  rode  to  the  court,  and  he 
said  to  his  companion,  "  If  I  get  safe  through  to-day,  I'll 
leave  the  country  and  go  to  Illinois,  where  I  can  live  in  peace 
with  my  neighbors." 

Near  the  court  house,  while  the  people  were  waiting  for 
the  arrival  of  the  judge,  old  Magness  began  to  talk  to  Patten 
Anderson  on  the  old  grievance.  Both  became  excited.  Mag- 
ness  said  something  extremely  irritating.  Anderson,  over 
come  with  passion,  raised  his  hand  (with  a  dirk  in  it,  say 
some)  to  strike.  At  that  moment,  young  Magness,  who  was 
sitting  near,  watching  (Jackson  thought)  for  that  very  mo 
ment  to  arrive,  drew  a  pistol  from  his  breast  and  shot  Ander 
son  dead.  He  gave  himself  up  to  the  authorities,  averring 
that  what  he  had  done  was  done  to  save  his  father  from  a 
deadly  stroke. 

General  Jackson,  and  the  other  friends  of  the  Andersons, 
thought  they  saw,  in  this  affair,  a  calculated,  contrived  as 
sassination.  The  trial,  which  took  place  at  Franklin,  in 
Williamson  county,  near  the  center  of  the  State,  lasted  two 
weeks,  and  was  attended  by  a  great  concourse  of  people. 
Franklin,  then  a  frontier  village,  boasted  two  small  taverns, 
one  of  which  was  occupied  by  General  Jackson  and  the  An 
derson  party,  the  other  by  the  adherents  of  the  Magnesses. 
The  best  lawyers  in  the  Stats  were  engaged.  Felix  Grundy 


344  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1810. 

was  one  who  defended  the  prisoner.  Thomas  H.  Beriton,  a 
young  lawyer  then,  was  engaged  on  the  side  of  the  prosecu 
tion.  The  feelings  of  all  parties  were  roused  to  the  highest 
pitch  of  excitement,  and  the  affair  seemed  to  resolve  itself,  at 
last,  into  a  contest  between  the  partisans  and  the  opponents 
of  General  Jackson.  One  of  my  informants  remembers  see 
ing  General  Jackson,  after  dinner  one  day,  haranguing  the 
multitude  from  the  piazza  of  the  tavern  with  fearful  vehe 
mence,  the  orator  being  evidently  a  little  the  worse  for  drink. 
One  of  the  Magness  party,  going  by  at  the  time,  thought 
proper  to  indicate  his  opinion  of  something  that  General  Jack 
son  said,  by  shrugging  his  shoulders  and  saying,  "Pshaw!" 
Jackson  paused  in  his  speech,  and  looked  around  for  the  ut- 
terer  of  the  contemptuous  interjection,  saying, 

"  Who  dares  to  say  pshaw  at  me  ?  By !  I'll  knock 

any  man's  head  off  who  says  pshaw  at  me !  " 

The  offender  walked  on,  and  General  Jackson  finished  his 
after-dinner  speech. 

But  this  was  not  the  remark  for  the  sole  sake  of  which 
the  Magness  story  was  revived  in  these  pages.  In  giving  his 
evidence,  General  Jackson  was  asked  by  counsel  what  was  the 
character  of  Patten  Anderson  for  peaceableness.  This  was 
thought  to  be  a  home  thrust  at  the  witness,  since  every  one 
present  knew  that  the  unfortunate  Patten  was  a  man  of  high 
temper,  which  had  betrayed  him,  not  unfrequently,  into — 
"  difficulties,"  and  General  Jackson  could  not  deny  it.  He 
saw  the  game,  however,  in  an  instant,  and,  in  an  instant, 
was  ready  with  his  superb  reply  : — 

"  Sir,"  said  Jackson,  with  his  most  Jacksonian  look,  "  my 
friend,  Patten  Anderson,  was  the  NATURAL  ENEMY  OF  SCOUN 
DRELS  \" 

Every  one  drew  the  desired  inference  that  the  natural 
enemy  of  scoundrels  must  naturally  have  had  a  good  many 
difficulties  with  scoundrels. 

What  followed  this  remark  is  not  remembered.  The 
prisoner  was  convicted  of  manslaughter  only,  and  was  sen 
tenced  to  be  branded  in  the  hand.  The  verdict,  I  have  been 


1810.]         ADOPTION     OF     A     SON     AND     HEIR.  345 

assured,  was  milder  than  it  would  have  been,  but  for  the  ex 
traordinary  zeal  displayed  by  the  friends  of  the  deceased  to 
secure  a  capital  conviction.  This  seemed  to  rouse  a  spirit  of 
opposition  in  the  minds  of  the  jury,  which  is  thought  to 
have  saved  the  prisoner's  life. 

Mr.  Benton's  allusion  to  this  trial,  with  some  other  recol 
lections  of  his,  as  given  in  the  Thirty  Years'  View,  may  be 
properly  added  here  : — * 

"  The  first  time  that  I  saw  General  Jackson  was  at  Nashville,  Tennes 
see,  in  1799 — he  on  the  bench,  a  judge  of  the  then  Superior  Court,  and  I 
a  youth  of  seventeen,  back  in  the  crowd.  He  was  then  a  remarkable  man, 
and  had  his  ascendant  over  all  who  approached  him,  not  the  effect  of  his 
high  judicial  station,  nor  of  the  senatorial  rank  which  he  had  held  and  re 
signed  ;  nor  of  military  exploits,  for  he  had  not  then  been  to  war  •  but  the 
effect  of  personal  qualities,  cordial  and  graceful  manners,  hospitable  temper, 
elevation  of  mind,  undaunted  spirit,  generosity,  and  perfect  integrity.  In 
charging  the  jury  in  the  impending  case,  he  committed  a  slight  solecism  in 
language  which  grated  on  my  ear,  and  lodged  on  my  memory,  without 
derogating  in  the  least  from  the  respect  which  he  inspired ;  and  without 
awakening  the  least  suspicion  that  I  was  ever  to  be  engaged  in  smoothing 
his  diction.  The  first  time  I  spoke  to  him  was  some  years  after,  at  a 
(then)  frontier  town  in  Tennessee,  when  he  was  returning  from  a  south 
ern  visit,  which  brought  him  through  the  towns  and  camps  of  some  of  the 
Indian  tribes.  In  pulling  off  his  overcoat,  I  perceived  on  the  white  lining 
of  the  turning-down  sleeve,  a  dark  speck,  which  had  life  and  motion.  I 
brushed  it  off,  and  put  the  heel  of  my  shoe  upon  it — little  thinking  that  I 
was  ever  to  brush  away  from  him  game  of  a  very  different  kind.  He 
smiled ;  and  we  began  a  conversation  in  which  he  very  quickly  revealed  a 
leading  trait  of  his  character — that  of  encouraging  young  men  in  their 
laudable  pursuits.  Getting  my  name  and  parentage,  and  learning  my  in 
tended  profession,  he  manifested  a  regard  for  me,  said  he  had  received  hos 
pitality  at  my  father's  house  in  North  Carolina;  gave  me  kind  invitations 
to  visit  him,  and  expressed  a  belief  that  I  would  do  well  at  the  bar — gen 
erous  words,  which  had  the  effect  of  promoting  what  they  undertook  to  " 
foretell.  Soon  after,  he  had  further  opportunity  to  show  his  generous 
feelings.  I  was  employed  in  a  criminal  case  of  great  magnitude,  where 
the  oldest  and  ablest  counsel  appeared — Haywood.  Grundy,  Whiteside — 
and  the  trial  of  which  General  Jackson  attended  through  concern  for  the 
fate  of  a  friend.  As  junior  counsel  I  had  to  precede  my  elders,  and  did 

*  Benton's  Thirty  Years'  View,  I,  736. 


346  LIFE     OF     ANDREW    JACKSON.  [1810. 

/ 

my  best ;  and  it  being  on  the  side  of  his  feelings,  he  found  my  effort  to  be 
better  than  it  was.  He  complimented  me  greatly,  and  from  that  time  our 
intimacy  began. 

"  I  soon  after  became  his  aid,  he  being  a  Major  General  in  the  Tennes 
see  militia — made  so  by  a  majority  of  one  vote.  How  much  often  depends 
upon  one  vote ! — New  Orleans,  the  Creek  campaign,  and  all  their  conse 
quences,  date  from  that  one  vote ! — and  after  that,  I  was  habitually  at  his 
house ;  and,  as  an  inmate,  had  opportunities  to  know  his  domestic  life,  and 
at  the  period  when  it  was  least  understood  and  most  misrepresented.  He 
had  resigned  his  place  on  the  bench  of  the  Superior  Court,  as  he  had  pre 
viously  resigned  his  place  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  and  lived  on 
a  superb  estate  of  some  thousand  acres,  twelve  miles  from  Nashville,  then 
hardly  known  by  its  subsequent  famous  name  of  the  Hermitage — name 
chosen  for  its  perfect  accord  with  his  feelings ;  for  he  had  then  actually 
withdrawn  from  the  stage  of  public  life,  and  from  a  state  of  feeling  well 
known  to  belong  to  great  talent  when  finding  no  theater  for  its  congenial 
employment.  He  was  a  careful  farmer,  overlooking  every  thing  himself, 
seeing  that  the  fields  and  fences  were  in  good  order,  the  stock  well  at 
tended,  and  the  slaves  comfortably  provided  for.  His  house  was  the  scat 
of  hospitality,  the  resort  of  friends  and  acquaintances,  and  of  all  strangers 
visiting  the  State — and  the  more  agreeable  to  all  from  the  perfect  con 
formity  of  Mrs.  Jackson's  character  to  his  own.  But  he  needed  some  ex 
citement  beyond  that  which  a  farming  life  can  afford,  and  found  it,  for 
some  years,  in  the  animating  sports  of  the  turf.  He  loved  fine  horses — 
racers  of  speed  and  bottom — owned  several,  and  contested  the  four  mile 
heats  with  the  best  that  could  be  bred,  or  brought  to  the  State,  and  for 
large  sums.  That  is  the  nearest  to  gaming  that  I  ever  knew  him  to  corne. 
Cards  and  the  cock-pit  have  been  imputed  to  him,  but  most  erroneously.* 
I  never  saw  him  engaged  in  either.  Duels  were  usual  in  that  time,  and 
he  had  his  share  of  them,  with  their  unpleasant  concomitant0 ;  but  they 
passed  away  with  all  their  animosities,  and  he  has  often  been  seen  zeal 
ously  pressing  the  advancement  of  those  against  whom  he  had  but  lately 
been  arrayed  in  deadly  hostility. 

"  His  temper  was  placable  as  well  as  irascible,  and  his  reconciliations 
were  cordial  and  sincere.  Of  that  my  own  case  was  a  signal  instance. 
After  a  deadly  feud,  I  became  his  confidential  adviser;  was  offered  the 
highest  marks  of  his  favor,  and  received  from  his  dying  bed  a  message  of 
friendship,  dictated  when  life  was  departing,  and  he  would  have  to  pause  for 
breath.  There  was  a  deep-seated  vein  of  piety  in  him,  unaffectedly  show 
ing  itself  in  his  reverence  for  divine  worship,  respect  for  the  ministers  of 

*  Mr.  Ben  ton  is  in  error  here,  as  he  often  is  in  unimportant  details.  Benton 
never  lived  at  Nashville. 


1810.]        ADOPTION     OF     A     SON     AND     HEIR.  347 

the  gospel,  their  hospitable  reception  in  his  house,  and  constant  encourage 
ment  of  all  the  pious  tendencies  of  Mrs.  Jackson.*  And  when  they  both 
afterwards  became  members  of  a  church,  it  was  the  natural  and  regular  re 
sult  of  their  early  and  cherished  feelings.  He  was  gentle  in  his  house,  and 
alive  to  the  tenderest  emotions ;  and  of  this  I  can  give  you  an  instance, 
greatly  in  contrast  with  his  supposed  character,  and  worth  more  than  a  long 
discourse  in  showing  what  that  character  really  was.  I  arrived  at  his  house 
one  wet,  chilly  evening  in  February,  and  came  upon  him  in  the  twilight, 
sitting  alone  before  the  fire,  a  lamb  and  a  child  between  his  knees.  He 
started  a  little,  called  a  servant  to  remove  the  two  innocents  to  another 
room,  and  explained  to  me  how  it  was.  The  child  had  cried  because  the 
lamb  was  out  in  the  cold,  and  begged  him  to  bring  it  in,  which  he  had  done 
to  please  the  child,  his  adopted  son,  then  not  two  years  old.  The  ferocious 
man  does  not  do  that !  and  though  Jackson  had  his  passions  and  his  vio 
lence,  they  were  for  men  and  enemies — those  who  stood  up  against  him — 
and  not  for  women  and  children,  or  the  weak  and  helpless :  for  all  whom 
his  feelings  were  those  of  protection  and  support. 

"  His  hospitality  was  active  as  well  as  cordial,  embracing  the  worthy  hi 
every  walk  of  life,  and  seeking  out  deserving  objects  to  receive  it,  no  mat 
ter  how  obscure.  Of  this  I  learned  a  characteristic  incident,  in  relation  to 
the  son  of  the  famous  Daniel  Boone.  The  young  man  had  come  to  Nash 
ville  on  his  father's  business,  to  be  detained  some  weeks,  and  had  his  lodg 
ings  at  a  small  tavern  towards  the  lower  part  of  the  town.  General  Jackson 
heard  of  it ;  sought  him  out ;  found  him  ;  took  him  home  to  remain  as  long 
as  his  business  detained  him  in  the  country,  saying,  'Your  father's  dog 
should  not  stay  in  a  tavern  where  I  have  a  house.'  This  was  heart !  and  I 
had  it  from  the  young  man  himself  long  after,  when  he  was  a  State  senator 
of  the  General  Assembly  of  Missouri,  and,  as  such,  nominated  me  for  the 
United  States  Senate  at  my  first  election  in  1820;  an  act  of  hereditary 
friendship,  as  our  fathers  had  been  early  friends. 

"  Abhorrence  of  debt,  public  and  private,  dislike  of  banks,  and  love  of  hard 
money,  love  of  justice  and  love  of  country,  were  ruling  passions  with  Jack 
son  ;  and  of  these  he  gave  constant  evidence  in  all  the  situations  of  his  life. 
Of  private  debts,  he  contracted  none  of  his  own,  and  made  any  sacrifices  to 
get  out  of  those  incurred  for  others.  Of  this  he  gave  a  signal  instance,  not 
long  before  the  war  of  1812,  selling  the  improved  part  of  his  estate,  with 
the  best  buildings  of  the  country  upon  it,  to  pay  a  debt.  ...  He  was 
attached  to  his  friends  and  to  his  country,  and  never  believed  any  report  to 
the  discredit  of  either,  until  compelled  by  proof.  He  would  not  believe  in  the 
first  reports  of  the  surrender  of  General  Hull,  and  became  sad  and  oppressed 
when  forced  to  believe  it.  He  never  gave  up  a  friend  in  a  doubtful  case,  or 

*  All  this  belongs  to  a  later  period. 


348  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1810. 

from  policy  or  calculation.  He  was  a  firm  believer  in  the  goodness  of  a 
superintending  Providence,  and  in  the  eventual  right  judgment  and  justice 
of  the  people.  I  have  seen  him  at  the  most  desperate  part  of  his  fortunes, 
and  never  saw  him  waver  in  the  belief  that  all  would  come  right  in  the 
end.  In  the  time  of  Cromwell,  he  would  have  been  a  Puritan. 

"The  character  of  his  mind  was  that  of  judgment,  with  a  rapid  and 
almost  intuitive  perception,  followed  by  an  instant  and  decisive  action. 
It  was  that  which  made  him  a  General  and  a  President  for  the  time  in 
which  he  served.  He  had  vigorous  thoughts,  but  not  the  faculty  of  arrang 
ing  them  in  a  regular  composition,  either  written  or  spoken ;  and  in  formal 
papers  he  usually  gave  his  draft  to  an  aid,  a  friend,  or  a  secretary,  to  be 
written  over — often  to  the  loss  of  vigor.  But  the  thoughts  were  his  own, 
vigorously  expressed;  and  without  effort,  writing  with  a  rapid  pen,  and 
never  blotting  or  altering ;  but,  as  Carlyle  says  of  Cromwell,  hitting  the  nail 
upon  the  head  as  he  went.  I  have  a  great  deal  of  his  writing  now,  some  on 
public  affairs,  and  covering  sheets  of  paper,  and  no  erasures  or  interlineations 
anywhere.  His  conversation  was  like  his  writing — a  vigorous  flowing  cur 
rent,  apparently  without  the  trouble  of  thinking,  and  always  impressive. 
His  conclusions  were  rapid  and  immovable,  when  he  was  under  strong  con 
victions,  though  often  yielding  on  minor  points  to  his  friends.  And  no  man 
yielded  quicker  when  he  was  convinced ;  perfectly  illustrating  the  difference 
between  firmness  and  obstinacy.  .  .  .  . 

"  He  had  a  load  to  carry  all  his  life,  resulting  from  a  temper  which 
refused  compromises  and  bargainings,  and  went  for  a  clean  victory  or  a 
clean  defeat  in  every  case.  Hence,  every  step  he  took  was  a  contest,  and, 
it  may  be  added,  every  contest  was  a  victory 

"  There  was  an  innate,  unvarying,  self-acting  delicacy  in  his  intercourse 
with  the  female  sex,  including  all  womankind ;  and  on  that  point,  my  per 
sonal  observation  (and  my  opportunities  for  observation  were  both  large 
and  various)  enables  me  to  join  in  the  declaration  of  the  belief  expressed  by 
his  earliest  friend  and  most  intimate  associate,  the  late  Judge  Overton,  of 
Tennessee.  The  Roman  general  won  an  immortality  by  one  act  of  conti 
nence.  What  praise  is  due  to  Jackson,  whose  whole  life  was  continent  ? 
I  repeat,  if  he  had  been  born  in  the  time  of  Cromwell,  he  would  have  been 
a  Puritan.  Nothing  could  exceed  his  kindness  and  affection  to  Mrs.  Jack 
son,  always  increasing  in  proportion  as  his  elevation  and  culminating  for 
tunes  drew  cruel  attacks  upon  her.  I  knew  her  well,  and  that  a  more 
exemplary  woman  in  all  the  relations  of  life,  wife,  friend,  neighbor,  relation 
mistress  of  slaves,  never  lived,  and  never  presented  a  more  quiet,  cheerful, 
and  admirable  management  of  her  household.  She  had  not  education,  but 
she  had  a  heart,  and  a  good  one ;  and  that  was  always  leading  her  to  do 
kind  things  in  the  kindest  manner.  She  had  the  General's  own  warm  heart, 
frank  manners  and  hospitable  temper;  and  no  two  persons  could  have  been 


1811]     JACKSON'S    WAR    WITH    DINSMORE.        349 

better  suited  to  each  other,  lived  more  happily  together,  or  made  a  house 
more  attractive  to  visitors.  She  had  the  faculty — a  rare  one — of  retaining 
names  and  titles  in  a  throng  of  visitors,  addressing  each  one  appropriately, 
and  .dispensing  hospitality  to  all  with  a  cordiality  which  enhanced  its  value. 
No  bashful  youth  or  plain  old  man,  whose  modesty  sat  them  down  at  the 
lower  end  of  the  table,  could  escape  her  cordial  attention,  any  more  than 
the  titled  gentlemen  at  her  right  and  left.  Young  persons  were  her  delight, 
and  she  always  had  her  house  filled  with  them — clever  young  women  and 
clever  young  men — all  calling  her  affectionately  '  Aunt  Rachel.'  I  was 
young  then,  and  was  one  of  that  number.  I  owe  it  to  early  recollections 
and  to  cherished  convictions — in  this  last  notice  of  the  Hermitage — to  bear 
this  faithful  testimony  to  the  memory  of  its  long  mistress,  the  loved  and 
honored  wife  of  a  great  man.  Her  greatest  eulogy  is  in  the  affection  which 
he  bore  her  living,  and  in  the  sorrow  with  which  he  mourned  her  dead." 


CHAPTER     XXXII. 

GENERAL   JACKSON'S   WAR   WITH    SILAS   DINSMORE. 

SILAS  DINSMORE  was  agent  to  the  Choctaw  Indians.  The 
Indian  Agents  were  persons  of  importance  in  the  early  day. 
Appointed  by  the  general  government,  they  represented  in 
the  Indian  country  the  power  and  authority  of  the  United 
States.  They  paid  over  to  the  chiefs  the  annuity  of  the  tribe, 
and  held  them  to  the  performance  of  the  duties  of  which  that 
annuity  was  the  recompense.  It  was  the  agent  who  strove 
to  protect  the  Indians  from  the  encroachments  of  the  settlers, 
and  the  settlers  from  the  thieving  visits  of  the  Indians  ;  who 
compelled  the  chiefs  to  deliver  up  offending  Indians,  and 
complained  of  white  men  who  had  done  the  Indians  wrong. 
It  was  theirs,  in  short,  to  see  that  the  inevitable  process  by 
which  the  Indian  country  was  to  change  owners  went  on  with 
as  little  as  possible  of  violence,  anguish,  and  terror. 

Clothed  with -an  authority  derived  from  the  government 
of  the  United  States,  whose  flag  floated  from  the  staff  before 
their  houses,  the  medium  of  the  government's  benefactions, 
VOL.  i. — 23 


350  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1811. 

and  themselves  liberally  salaried,*  these  agents  sometimes 
acquired  over  the  Indians  an  almost  regal  influence  ;  which 
they  sometimes  used  for  the  noblest  purposes.  Many  of  the 
agents  appointed  by  the  early  Presidents  were  not  politicians, 
but  men  of  sense  and  feeling,  who  taught  the  Indians  some 
of  the  arts  of  civilization,  while  their  wives  showed  the 
squaws  how  to  sew,  spin,  knit,  weave,  and  make  bread.  The 
civilization  of  the  Cherokees  began  with  the  labors  of  the 
men  whom  President  Washington  sent  to  live  among  them 
in  the  character  of  agents  ;  good  men,  who  united  in  them 
selves  the  best  qualities  of  the  magistrate  and  the  missionary. 
•  To  their  other  duties  was  afterwards  added  that  of  pre 
venting  runaway  negroes  from  taking  refuge  in  the  Indian 
country.  The  settlements  were  then  few  and  far  between. 
Between  Nashville  and  the  Mississippi  river,  between  Nash 
ville  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  the  wilderness  was  almost  un 
broken.  That  fine  region  swarmed  with  Indians  ;  for,  as 
before  remarked,  the  country  best  for  the  white  man  is  best 
for  the  Indian  also. 

It  was  in  the  discharge  of  that  part  of  his  duty  which  re 
lated  to  the  protection  of  the  interests  of  slave-owners  that 
Silas  Dinsmore  gave  mortal  offense  to  some  of  the  good  people 
of  Nashville,  and  to  General  Jackson.  At  first,  it  seems, 
Dinsmore  was  complained  of  for  not  being  rigid  enough  in  the 
enforcement  of  the  laws.  Accordingly,  in  the  month  of 
April,  1811,  he  caused  a  board  to  be  erected  on  the  road  in 
front  of  his  agency  buildings,  bearing  the  following  inscrip 
tion  : — 


"Whereas  complaints  are  made  that  runaway  negroes  effect  their 
escape  through  the  Indian  countries,  under  the  protection  of  pretended 
masters,  I  hereby  give  notice  that  I  shall  arrest  and  detain  every  negro 
found  traveling  in  the  Choctaw  country  whose  master  has  not  a  passport 
as  the  law  requires,  and  also  evidence  of  property  in  such  negro. 

"  SILAS  DINSMORE." 

*  Dinsmore's  salary  was  eighteen  hundred  dollars ;  equal  to  three  thousand 
now. 


1811.]    JACKSON'S    WAR    WITH    DINS  MORE.        351 

He  carried  out  this  notice  to  the  letter,  stopping  every 
negro  whose  master  had  not  with  him  the  requisite  papers. 
This  it  was  which  gave  such  extreme  offence.  Complaints 
were  accordingly  forwarded  to  the  Secretary-of-War,  who 
wrote,  October  15th,  1811,  to  Mr.  Dinsmore,  telling  him  that 
he  was  carrying  his  authority  a  little  too  far.  "  Complaints/' 
said  the  Secretary  (W.  Eustis),  "having  been  repeatedly 
made  to  this  Department,  from  respectable  sources,  of  the 
practice  of  arresting  the  servants  of  gentlemen  traveling 
through  the  Choctaw  country  without  passports,  in  future 
you  will  suffer  the  servants  of  persons  of  known  respecta 
bility  of  character,  and  where  no  design  of  fraud  is  appre 
hended,  to  pass  unmolested  when  accompanying  their  masters, 
and  you  will  deliver  over  to  their  masters  those  servants  who 
have  been  detained  for  want  of  the  requisite  passports,  except 
in  cases  where  a  fraudulent  intention  is  evident." 

This  order,  besides  rebuking  the  zealous  agent,  threw  upon 
him  the  responsibility  of  deciding,  from  the  appearance  of  a 
traveler,  whether  he  was  or  was  not  the  lawful  owner  of  the 
negroes  accompanying  him.  Mr.  Silas  Dinsmore  gently  re 
monstrated.  "  The  crowd  of  Indians,"  he  wrote,  November 
13th,  "  assembled  to  receive  their  annuity,  prevented  me 
from  answering  your  letter  of  October  15th  by  the  return 
mail.  Complaints  have  been  made  to  me,  as  well  as  to  your 
department,  against  my  conduct  in  arresting  gentlemen's 
servants.  On  reference  to  my  record  I  find  that,  since  the 
24th  of  April  last,  two  hundred  and  twelve  people  of  color 
have  passed  this  place,  only  twenty-five  of  whom  were  with 
out  passports  and  arrested.  The  masters  of  these  latter  cen 
sure,  and  those  of  the  former  approve  my  conduct.  I  have 
also  received  the  thanks  of  every  man  of  property  in  the  Mis 
sissippi  Territory  with  whom  I  have  conversed  for  the  secur 
ity  my  vigilance  has  given  to  their  property  by  intercepting 
fugitive  slaves,  and  rendering  their  escape,  through  the  wil 
derness,  almost  an  impossibility.  And  while  the  law  requires 
every  person  coming  into  this  country  to  be  proyided  with  a 
passport,  a  complaint  from  a  person  violating  this  law,  and 


352  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1811. 

to  the  executive  part  of  the  government,  too,  which  is  bound 
to  enforce  the  law,  would  seem  to  come  with  a  very  ill  grace. 
.  .  .  Should  you  still  determine  that  the  law  and  former 
instructions  shall  in  any  manner  be  suspended,  I  beg  that 
your  orders  may  be  general,  and  not  impose  on  me  the  un 
pleasant  task  of  discriminating  between  the  exterior  appear 
ance  and  the  reality  of  a  gentleman.  At  the  moment  your 
letter  arrived,  a  negro  was  brought  (arrested  by  my  order) 
eighty-three  miles  distant.  He  was  in  the  possession  of  Jes 
sie  McGarey,  son  of  Colonel  Hugh  McGarey,  of  Kentucky,  a 
young  man  of  decent  deportment.  He,  however,  made  his 
escape,  and  the  negro  proved  to  be  the  property  of  Mr. 
Barnes,  a  planter  of  the  Mississippi  Territory." 

A  few  weeks  later,  December  6th,  he  wrote  to  the  Secre 
tary  again,  and  more  urgently,  on  the  subject.  "  By  the  last 
mail,"  he  wrote,  "  I  received  letters  stating,  with  urgent 
importunity,  that  four  negroes  had  absconded,  and  probably 
put  themselves  under  the  protection  of  fictitious  masters,  and 
soliciting  the  utmost  of  my  vigilance  to  intercept  them.  How 
can  I  do  it  consistent  with  your  last  letter  ?  The  evil  is 
great  and  growing,  arid  would  seem  to  demand  the  aid  of 
government  to  check  it  by  lawful  means." 

Before  the  month  closed  he  wrote  a  third  time,  enclosing 
a  resolution,  passed  by  the  Legislature  of  the  Mississippi  Ter 
ritory,*  approving  the  act  of  Congress  under  w\"oh  he  had 

*  Resolution  of  the  Legislative  Council  of  Mississippi,  December  18th,  1811 : — 
"  Resolved,  By  the  Legislative  Council  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
Mississippi  Territory  in  General  Assembly  convened,  that  the  operation  of  the 
third  section  of  an  act  of  Congress  regulating  trade  and  intercourse  with  the 
Indian  tribes,  and  to  preserve  peace  on  the  frontiers,  has  been  productive  of  many 
beneficial  consequences  to  the  citizens  of  this  Territory,  preserving  to  the  proper 
owners  a  great  deal  of  valuable  property  which  would  otherwise  have  been  irre 
vocably  lost. 

"  COWLES  MEAD,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 
"  ALEXANDER  MONTGOMERY,  President  of  the  Legislative  Council. 
"Approved,  December  18th,  1811. 

"  HENRY  DAINGERFIELD,  Secretary  of  the  Mississippi  Territory,  exe 
cuting  the  powers  and  performing  the  duties  of  the  Governor 
of  said  Territory  in  his  absence." 


1811.]       JACKSON    S     WAR     WITH      DINSMORE.       353 

acted,  which  required  that  all  persons  going  through  the 
Indian  country  should  be  provided  with  a  passport.  "A 
full  conviction,"  added  Mr.  Dinsmore,  "  of  the  necessity  of 
executing  the  law  -of  the  United  States,  has  induced  me  to 
continue  to  exact  passports  of  all  negroes  until  I  shall  receive 
positive  orders  to  the  contrary.  The  comparative  few  who 
have  been  stopped,  and  who  complain,  bear  so  small  a  pro 
portion  to  the  number  who  approve  the  law,  that  I  should 
feel  myself  delinquent  in  neglecting  to  execute  it  as  hereto 
fore,  and  the  resolution  of  the  Legislature  was  intended  to 
show  or  express  the  general  impression  of  approbation  on  my 
conduct.  I  hope  you  will  view  the  subject  as  I  do,  and  at 
least  pardon,  if  not  approve,  my  zeal,  as  I  verily  believe  noth 
ing  less  will  secure  the  property  of  this  country." 

The  replies  of  the  Secretary  of  War  to  these  letters  still 
threw  the  responsibility  upon  the  poor  agent.  "  The  inten 
tion,"  wrote  Mr.  Eustis,  "  of  the  letter  from  this  Department 
of  the  15th  of  October  last,  was  to  invest  in  you  a  discretion 
to  act  in  cases  where,  from  your  knowledge  of  the  persons, 
no  evil  could  result  from  a  relaxation  of  your  instructions, 
and  a  real  grievance  would  ensue  from  a  strict  execution  of 
them.  Such  a  discretion  was  all  that  was  contemplated,  and 
all  that  is  intended  you  should  exercise." 

And,  again,  a  few  weeks  later  : — "  The  laws  regulating 
trade  and  "  j  tprcourse  with  Indians  provide  against  all  tres 
passes  and  encroachments  on  the  Indian  territory,  but  are  not 
construed  to  authorize  the  stopping  of  any  person  traveling 
through  the  country  in  a  peaceable  manner  on  the  public  road 
or  highway  ;  you  will,  therefore,  refrain  from  the  exercise  of 
any  such  authority  hereafter."* 

The  affair  might  have  rested  here,  if  General  Jackson  had 
not  taken  it  up.  It  chanced  that  he  had  occasion,  about  this 
time,  to  pass  by  the  agency-house  of  Mr.  Dinsmore  with  a 
considerable  number  of  negroes,  the  property  of  a  firm  of 
which  he  was  an  inactive  partner.  Upon  the  dissolution  of 

*  All  from  Niles'  Register,  voL  xxxiv. 


354  LIFE     OF     ANDRE  W     JACKSON.  [1812. 

this  firm  (Jackson,  Coleman  and  Green),  the  junior  partner 
(a  relative  of  Mrs.  Jackson's,  for  whose  benefit  the  General 
had  embarked  some  capital  and  more  credit  in  the  business) 
was  deputed  to  take  a  number  of  negroes  to  the  lower  coun 
try  for  sale.  From  the  proceeds  of  this  sale,  the  capital  ad 
vanced  by  General  Jackson  was  to  be  returned  to  him.  Some 
time  after  the  departure  of  the  young  man  with  the  negroes, 
word  was  brought  to  Nashville  that  he  was  mismanaging  and 
abusing  his  trust ;  that  he  had  sold  some  of  the  negroes  to 
little  advantage,  and  was  squandering  the  money  at  the 
gaming  table.  Jackson  mounted  his  horse,  rode  to  Natchez, 
and  marched  back  the  negroes  toward  Nashville.  On  ap 
proaching  the  Choctaw  agency,  he  armed  two  of  his  negroes 
and  procured  a  rifle  for  himself,  being  resolved  to  settle  this 
passport  question  in  a  practical  manner.  Having  reached 
the  agency  without  opposition,  he  ordered  his  negroes  to  go 
to  the  banks  of  a  creek  near  by  and  take  their  breakfast, 
while  he  went  in  quest  of  the  agent.  Dinsmore  was  absent 
from  home.  General  Jackson,  therefore,  could  only  leave  a 
message  for  him  at  the  agency,  to  the  effect  that  he,  Andrew 
Jackson,  had  been  there — should  have  been  glad  to  see  Mr. 
Dinsmore — could  not  wait,  however — was  going  on  home 
ward,  with  his  negroes  ;  intimating  that  the  Choctaw  agent 
might  make  what  he  could  of  it.  Jackson  completed  his 
journey  without  molestation,  and  made  no  secret,  on  his  ar 
rival  at  Nashville,  of  the  manner  in  which  he  had  defied  the 
power  of  the  too  zealous  Dinsmore.* 

*  I  notice,  since  this  chapter  was  prepared,  that  a  different  account  of  Gen 
eral  Jackson's  proceedings  at  the  agency  is  in  print.  I  append,  therefore,  one 
of  the  authorities  for  the  above  statement.  The  following  is  part  of  a  letter 
written  by  Mr.  R.  Weakly,  of  Nashville,  June  14th,  1828  :--'•!  heard  General 
Jackson  say,  ....  that  on  the  morning  he  was  to  pass  the  agency  he 
armed  two  of  his  most  resolute  negro  men,  and  put  them  in  front  of  his  negroes, 
and  gave  them  orders  to  FIGHT  THEIR  WAY,  if  necessary.  He  further  observed, 
that  a  friend  had  put  into  his  hands  the  night  before,  or  on  that  morning,  a  GOOD 
RIFLE  ;  that  when  he  came  opposite  the  agency,  he  directed  his  negroes  to  go  to 
a  branch,  and  eat  their  breakfast ;  that  he  rode  up  to  the  agency,  where  he  saw 
several  Indian  countrymen ;  inquired  of  them  for  Mr.  Dinsmore  who  informed 


1812.]      JACKSON'S  WAR   WITH    DINSMORE.      355 

Jackson  now  bestirred  himself  to  procure  the  removal  of 
the  agent  from  his  office  ;  and  the  agent,  hearing  of  it,  con 
tinued  to  send  to  Washington  proof  upon  proof  of  the  neces 
sity  of  insisting  upon  passports  in  every  instance.  In  one  of 
his  dispatches  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  he  enclosed  a  letter 
from  a  friend  in  Nashville,  "  which  exhibits,"  wrote  Dins- 
more,  "  a  specimen  of  the  zeal,  if  not  the  discretion  of  Gen 
eral  Jackson  and  others/'  Mr.  C.  Stump,  a  linseed  trader  in 
the  Choctaw  country,  was  the  friend  who  wrote  the  letter 
referred  to,  of  which  the  following  is  the  material  part : — 

"  I  conceive  it  my  duty,  from  the  friendship  I  owe  you,  to  inform  you 
of  what  is  going  on  here  to  injure  your  standing  as  an  agent  and  as  a  man 
of  honor.  It  is  currently  stated  here,  by  some  particular  persons,  that  you 
are,  in  the  first  place,  acting  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  your  country ; 
second,  that  in  stopping  of  negroes,  you  have  acted  impartially ;  you  have 
taken  bonds  of  some,  and  let  others  pass  unmolested.  Also,  they  charge 
you  with  intoxication,  insomuch  that  it  renders  you  incapable  of  doing  your 
duty,  with  general  other  charges  not  recollected  by  me.  The  Jacksons  are 
collecting  all  the  certificates  in  their  power ;  and  I  have  been  informed  that 
your  friend  T.  B.'s  certificate  will  also  be  had.  I  have  been  informed  that 
they  have  taken  John  Jones'  certificate,  John  Donally's,  Thomas  Clay- 
bourne's,  Joseph  Erwin's  and  many  others  not  now  recollected.  All  which 
certificates  they  are  taking,  as  I  have  been  informed,  for  the  purpose  of 
sending  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  for  the  purpose  to  have  you  removed 
from  office. 

"  I  heard  our  great  General  A.  J.  swear  in  a  public  company,  that  if 
you  didn't  desist  in  stopping  of  people's  negroes,  he  would  be  damned  if 
he  did  not  burn  you  and  your  agency  too.  This  I  beard  this  hero  repeat 
frequently ;  and  requested  me  as  being  your  friend,  to  inform  you  what  he 
said.  However,  I  did  not  wish  to  be  writing  on  such  a  subject,  for  fear  of 
being  dragged  into  the  contest ;  however,  my  feelings  are  such  as  com 
pelled  me  to  give  you  the  information.  I  hope  you  will  not  make  use  of 
my  name,  unless  necessity  requires  if;  you  know  what  a  violent  man  A. 
J.  is,  of  course.  I  hope  you  will  waive  any  information  I  give  you,  and  in 

him  Mr.  Dinsmore  was  not  there,  or  from  home.  He  told  them  to  tell  Mr.  Dins- 
more  he  should  have  been  glad  to  have  seen  him,  but  he  could  not  wait ;  that 
he  was  going  on  home  with  his  negroes.  A  fellow  named  John  Amp,  whom  I 
raised,  was  one  of  the  negroes  armed  and  put  in  front,  as  the  General  then 
stated." 


356  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1812. 

being  the  author,  unless  it  should  be  requested  in  positive  terms ;  your 
author  then  I  stand  at  command.  James  Jackson  is  the  person  who  is  col 
lecting  said  certificates,  and  swearing  to  have  you  removed  if  in  the  power 
of  him.  Impression  has  been  made  on  the  minds  of  the  citizens  of  Nash 
ville  very  unfavorable  respecting  of  you,  which  I  have  contradicted  in 
every  instance,  which  has,  in  several  instances,  terminated  in  a  severe 
quarrel." 

Mr.  Dinsinore,  at  length,  put  a  climax  to  his  previous 
enormities,  by  stopping  a  lady  who  was  traveling  through  the 
Choctaw  country  with  a  train  of  ten  negroes,  for  none  of 
whom  had  she  passports  or  proof  of  ownership  ;  and  not  only 
did  he  detain  her  negroes,  but  he  published  a  card  in  a  news 
paper  informing  the  public  that  he  had  done  so,  and  should 
continue  to  act  in  a  similar  manner  in  all  similar  cases. 
This  was  too  much  for  General  Jackson  to  endure  in  silence. 
To  his  old  friend,  George  W.  Campbell,  at  Washington,  he 
poured  out  his  feelings  in  an  epistolary  torrent,  foaming  and 
tumultuous. 

"THE  HONORABLE  GEORGE  W.  CAMPBELL,  ESQ.,  SIR: — You  will  receive 
herewith  enclosed  the  certificate  of  John  Gordon  and  Major  Thomas  G. 
Bradford,  editor  of  the  Clarion,  on  the  subject  of  the  card  bearing  date 
September  11,  1812,  published  in  the  Clarion  on  the  26th  of  September, 
1812,  from  Silas  Dinsmore,  United  States  agent  to  the  Chocktaw  nation, 
in  the  proper  handwriting  of  the  said  Silas  Dinsmore.  You  will  also  re 
ceive  enclosed  the  paper  of  the  26th  September,  containing  the  card  of  Mr. 
Dinsmore,  which  I  beg  you  to  lay  before  the  Secretary  of  War  as  soon  as 
this  reaches  you,  and  I  beg  you  to  communicate  without  delay  his  deter 
mination  as  it  respects  the  removal  of  Mr.  Dinsmore. 

"  When  I  received  your  letter  of  the  10th  of  April  last,  enclosing  me 
an  extract  of  the  Secretary  of  War's  letter  to  Silas  Dinsmore,  agent  to  the 
Chocktaw  nation,  I,  nor  the  citizens  of  West  Tennessee,  hesitated  not  to 
believe  that  Silas  Dinsmore  would  cease  to  exercise  over  our  citizens  such 
lawless  tyranny  as  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of;  and  that  our  peaceful  and 
honest  citizens  would  be  left  to  enjoy  the  free  and  unmolested  use  of  that 
road  as  secured  to  them  by  treaty.  You  can  easily  judge,  and  so  can  the 
Secretary  of  War,  our  surprise  and  indignation  at  the  wanton  insult  offered 
to  the  whole  citizens  of  West  Tennessee  by  the  publication  of  his  card  in 
the  Clarion,  in  which  he  boasts  that  he  has  set  at  defiance  the  solemn  treaty 
that  secures  to  our  citizens  and  those  of  the  .United  States  the  free  and 
unmolested  use  of  that  road,  as  well  as  the  express  instructions  of  the  Sec- 


1812.]     JACKSON'S    WAR    WITH    DINSMORE.      357 

retary  of  War  of  the  23d  of  March  last,  and  boasts  his  detention  of  a  de 
fenseless  woman,  and  her  property — and  for  what  ?  The  want  of  a  pass 
port  !  And,  my  God  I  is  it  come  to  this  ?  Are  we  freemen,  or  are  we 
slaves?  Is  this  real,  or  is  it  a  dream?  For  what  are  involved  in  a  war 
with  Great  Britain  ?  Is  it  not  for  the  support  of  our  rights  as  an  independ 
ent  people,  and  a  nation,  secured  to  us  by  nature's  God,  as  well  as  solemn 
treaties,  and  the  law  of  nations  ?  And  can  the  Secretary  of  War,  for  one 
moment,  retain  the  idea  that  we  will  permit  this  petty  tyrant  to  sport  with 
our  rights,  secured  to  us  by  treaty,  and  which  by  the  law  of  nature  we  do 
possess,  and  sport  with  our  feelings  by  publishing  his  lawless  tyranny  exer 
cised  over  a  helpless  and  unprotected  female  ?  If  he  does,  he  thinks  too 
meanly  of  our  patriotism  and  gallantry. 

"  Were  we  base  enough  to  surrender  our  independent  rights  secured  to 
us  by  the  bravery  and  blood  of  our  forefathers,  we  are  unworthy  the  name 
of  freemen.  And  we  view  all  rights  secured  to  us  by  solemn  treaty,  under 
the  constituted  authority,  rights  secured  to  us  by  the  blood  of  our  fathers, 
and  which  we  will  never  yield  but  with  our  lives.  The  indignation  of  our 
citizens  is  only  restrained  by  assurances  that  government,  so  soon  as  they 
are  notified  of  this  unwarrantable  insult,  added  to  the  many  injuries  that 
Silas  Dinsmore  has  heaped  upon  our  honest  and  unoffending  citizens,  that 
he  will  be  removed.  Should  we  be  deceived  in  this,  be  frank  with  the  Sec 
retary  of  War,  that  we  are  freemen,  and  that  we  will  support  the  supremacy 
of  the  laws,  and  that  the  wrath  and  indignation  of  our  citizens  will  sweep 
from  the  earth  the  invader  of  our  legal  rights  and  involve  Silas  Dinsmore 
in  the  flames  of  his  agency-house.  We  love  order,  and  nothing  but  the 
support  of  our  legal  and  inalienable  rights  would  or  could  prompt  us  to  an 
act  that  could  be  construed  as  wearing  the  appearance  of  rashness.  But 
should  not  the  source  of  the  evil  be  removed,  our  rights  secured  by  treaty 
restored  to  our  citizens,  the  agent  and  his  houses  will  be  demolished  ;  and 
when  government  is  applied  to,  and  so  often  notified  of  the  injuries  heaped 
upon  our  citizens,  and  they  will  adhere  to  the  agent  who  delights  in  tread 
ing  under  foot  the  rights  of  the  citizens,  and  exults  in  their  distresses,  the 
evil  be  upon  the  government,  not  upon  the  people  who  have  so  often  com 
plained  without  redress.  We  really  hope  that  the  evil  will  be  cut  off  by  the 
root,  by  the  removal  of  the  agent.  Should  this  not  be  done,  we  will  have 
a  right  fairly  to  conclude  that  the  administration  winks  at  the  agent's  con 
duct  under  the  rose,  notwithstanding  the  instructions  of  the  Secretary  in  his 
letter  to  Mr.  Dinsmore  of  the  23d  of  March. 

"  The  right  of  nature  occurs ;  and  if  redress  is  not  afforded,  I  would  de 
spise  the  wretch  that  slumbers  in  quiet  one  night  before  he  cuts  up  by  the 
roots  the  invader  of  his  solemn  rights,  regardless  of  consequences.  Let 
not  the  Secretary  of  War  believe  that  we  want  more  than  justice  ;  but  both 
from  Indians  and  Indian  agents  we  will  enjoy  the  rights  secured  to  us  by 


358  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1812. 

solemn  treaty,  or  we  will  die  nobly  in  their  support.  We  want  but  a  bare 
fulfillment  of  the  treaty.  "We  neither  understand  the  tyranny  of  the  agent 
in  open  violation  of  our  rights  secured  to  us  by  treaty,  or  the  Creek  law, 
that  takes  from  the  United  States  the  right  guarantied  by  treaty  that  the 
Indians  who  commit  murders  on  our  citizens  shall  be  delivered  up  when 
demanded,  to  be  tried  by  the  laws  of  the  United  States  and  punished. 
The  Creek  law  says  the  Creeks  will  punish  them  themselves. 

"  These  innovations,  without  the  consent  of  the  constituted  power  being 
first  had,  our  citizens  do  not  understand ;  the  information  of  Colonel  Haw 
kins,  United  States  agent  for  the  Creeks,  and  the  information  of  General 
James  Robertson,  agent  of  the  Chickasaw  Nation,  to  the  contrary  notwith 
standing.  Neither  can  we,  the  citizens  of  Tennessee,  believe,  without 
better  proof,  that  the  hair  of  the  head  of  one  of  the  murderers  of  the 
Manly's  family  and  Cravvleys,  at  the  mouth  of  Duck  river,  are  disturbed  by 
the  Creeks,  when  we  have  proof  that  they  lately  passed  near  to  Kaskaskia, 
fifteen  in  number,  to  join  the  Prophet.  In  this  particular,  we  want  and 
do  expect  the  murderers  delivered  up  agreeably  to  treaty.  This  is  only 
justice  ;  this  we  ask  of  government ;  this  we  are  entitled  to  ;  and  this  we 
must  (sooner  or  later)  and  will  have.  This  may  be  thought  strong  lan 
guage  ;  but  it  is  the  language  that  freemen  when  they  are  only  claiming  a 
fulfillment  of  their  rights  ought  to  use.  It  is  a  language  they  ought  to  be 
taught  to  lisp  from  their  cradles,  and  never  when  they  are  claiming  rights 
of  any  nation  ever  to  abandon. 

"  Pardon  the  trouble  I  have  given  you  in  this  long  letter.  It  relates  to 
the  two  subjects  that  have  for  some  time  irritated  the  public  mind,  and  are 
now  ready  to  burst  forth  in  vengeance. 

"  I  am,  dear  sir,  with  due  regard, 

"  Your  most  obedient  servant, 

"September,  1812.  ANDREW  JACKSON." 

Affairs  of  great  pith  and  moment  soon  called  the  atten 
tion  of  all  parties  away  from  this  matter ;  and  the  public 
heard  no  more  of  Silas  Dinsmore.  He  was  not,  as  has  been 
alleged,  dismissed  by  the  government  for  his  enforcement  of 
the  law  of  1802.  His  case  was  disposed  of  in  a  quieter,  po 
liter,  and  meaner  way.  In  1813  he  was  summoned  to  Wash 
ington  to  explain  certain  items  of  his  expenditure  which  the 
Secretary  of  War  thought  too  large.  He  obeyed  the  sum 
mons  ;  but,  on  reaching  Washington,  found  that  the  Secre 
tary  had  gone  to  the  North  to  superintend  in  person  the 
development  of  the  campaign  in  that  quarter.  He  went  in 


1812.]     JACKSON'S    WAR    WITH    DIN  SHORE.      359 

pursuit.  In  the  course  of  his  search  for  the  flitting  official, 
he  found  himself  at  Lake  Erie,  on  the  eve  of  Commodore 
Perry's  hattle.  He  volunteered,  and  fought  on  board  of  one 
of  the  victorious  ships.  During  his  absence,  however,  oc 
curred  that  prodigious  upheaving  of  the  south-western  tribes 
which  we  shall  soon  have  to  recount.  In  haste  and  terror 
the  authorities  of  Tennessee  took  the  responsibility  of  ap 
pointing  another  man  to  fill  the  agency  and  keep  the  Choc- 
taws  from  joining  the  dread  confederation.  This  agent  per 
formed  his  office  well,  and  held  the  Choctaws  to  their 
allegiance.  On  the  restoration  of  peace,  Jackson  being  then 
a  name  of  power  in  the  land,  it  was  found  convenient  to  re 
tain  the  new  agent  in  office,  and  shelve  Colonel  Dinsmore  ; 
who  was  thus  reduced  to  poverty,  and  made  a  wanderer  in 
the  regions,  where  he  had  formerly  borne  sway.  He  met 
Jackson  eight  years  later,  and  made  an  advance  toward 
reconciliation  ;  but  the  General  glared  upon  him  with  the 
wrath  of  1812  in  his  eyes.* 

This  quarrel,  we  may  remark,  was  an  illustration  of  the 
old  truth,  that  WHEN  HONEST  MEN  DIFFER,  BOTH  ARE  IN 
THE  RIGHT  •  each  founding  his  opinion  upon  truth  and  fact, 
though  not  upon  the  ivhole  truth  and  all  the  facts. 

Nothing  can  be  more  explicit  than  the  language  of  the 
Act  of  Congress,  (approved  March  30th,  1802,)  under  which 
Mr.  Dinsmore  acted.  The  third  section  ordains,  "  That  if 
any  person  shall  go  into  any  country,  which  is  alloted  or  se 
cured  by  treaty,  as  aforesaid,  to  any  of  the  Indian  tribes 
south  of  the  river  Ohio,  without  a  PASSPORT  first  had  and 
obtained  from  the  Governor  of  some  one  of  the  United  States, 
or  the  officer  of  the  troops  of  the  United  States  commanding 
at  the  nearest  post  on  the  frontiers,  or  such  other  person  as 

*  These  facts  I  have  from  an  acquaintance  of  Colonel  Dinsmore's,  who  re 
sided,  and  resides,  near  the  scene  of  the  events  related.  He  witnessed  the  ren 
contre  between  the  two,  which  is  alluded  to  in  the  text,  and  which  may  be 
more  fully  related  by  and  by.  I  presume  there  is  no  harm  in  saying  that  my 
informant  is  Colonel  B.  L.  C.  Wailes,  President  of  the  Mississippi  Historical 
Society. 


360  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1812. 

the  President  of  the  United  States  may,  from  time  to  time, 
authorize  to  grant  the  same,  shall  forfeit  a  sum  not  exceeding 
fifty  dollars,  or  be  imprisoned  not  exceeding  three  months." 

On  the  other  hand,  General  Jackson  could  point  to  the 
treaty  concluded  between  the  United  States  and  the  Choc- 
taws,  (signed  December  17th,  1801,)  which  provided  that  a 
wagon  road  should  be  opened  through  the  Choctaw  country 
to  the  Mississippi  river ;  "  and  the  same,"  said  the  treaty, 
"  shall  be,  and  continue  for  ever,  a  HIGHWAY  for  the  citizens 
of  the  United  States  and  the  Choctaws." 


CHAPTER     XXXIII. 

JACKSON  AND  THE  VOLUNTEERS. 

AT  the  beginning  of  the  war  of  1812,  there  was  not  a 
militia  general  in  the  western  country  less  likely  to  receive  a 
commission  from  the  general  government  than  Andrew  Jack 
son.  There  were  unpleasant  traditions  and  recollections  con 
nected  with  his  name  in  Mr.  Madison's  cabinet,  as  we  know. 
He  had  shown  himself  to  be  a  man  whose  nature  it  was  to 
style  a  "  venerable"  Secretary  of  War  and  revolutionary 
patriot,  who  showed  less  energy  than  he  thought  the  occa 
sion  required,  "  an  old  granny  ;"  a  trait  of  character  not 
pleasing  to  the  official  mind.  The  Dinsmore  affair  could  not 
have  given  Secretary  Eustis  the  impression  that  he  was  an 
easy  man  to  get  along  with.  Mr.  Madison,  too,  had  not  for 
gotten  how  General  Jackson  had  mounted  the  stump  in 
Richmond,  and  denounced  the  last  administration,  of  which 
himself  was  premier,  for  its  "  persecution"  of  Aaron  Burr. 
Still  less  could  he  have  forgotten  that  when  it  was  still  an 
open  question  who  should  succeed  Mr.  Jefferson,  General 
Jackson  had  given  his  voice  for  James  Monroe,  instead  of 
James  Madison. 


1812.]       JACKSON     AND     THE    VOLUNTEERS.  361 

There  were  those,  however,  who  were  strongly  convinced 
that  General  Jackson  was  the  very  man,  of  all  who  lived  in 
the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  to  be  entrusted  with  its  defense. 
Aaron  Burr  thought  so  for  one.  He  had  just  returned  to 
New  York,  after  his  four  years'  exile,  when  the  war  broke 
out.  "  There  was  in  Congress  with  me,"  says  Mr.  C.  J. 
Ingersoll,  "  a  member  from  New  York,  (Dr.  John  Sage,  of 
Long  Island,)  who  said  that  on  his  way  home,  after  voting 
for  the  declaration  of  war  in  the  Twelfth  Congress,  he  met 
that  extraordinary  man,  Aaron  Burr,  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  who  conversed  freely  with  him  on  the  subject,  par 
ticularly  respecting  the  gentlemen  appointed  generals  in  the 
army ;  not  one  of  whom,  Burr  said,  would  answer  public 
expectation.  Dr.  Sage  told  him  that  the  President  thought 
it  best,  and  in  fact  indispensable,  to  select  those  with  some 
military  character  from  service  in  the  Kevolution.  I  know, 
said  Colonel  Burr,  that  my  word  is  not  worth  much  with 
Madison ;  but  you  may  tell  him  from  me  that  there  is  an 
unknown  man  in  the  West,  named  Andrew  Jackson,  who 
will  do  credit  to  a  commission  in  the  army  if  conferred  on 
him.  This  remarkable  prediction  of  what  was  soon  verified, 
and  proof  of  Burr's  knowledge  of  the  then  obscure  individual 
he  recommended  to  notice,  occurred  before  General  Jackson 
had,  probably,  ever  heard  a  volley  of  musket  balls,  or  per 
formed  any  part  to  indicate  his  future  military  distinction."* 

Burr  uttered  this  opinion  to  all  his  friends  at  the  time. 
He  gave  it  strong  expression  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Martin  Van 
Buren,  a  rising  man  at  Albany,  who  had  then  scarcely  heard 
the  name  of  Andrew  Jackson,  and  was  himself  little  known 
beyond  his  own  State.  "  I'll  tell  you  why  they  don't  em 
ploy  Jackson,"  said  Burr ;  "  it's  because  he  is  a  friend  of 
mine." 

The  late  Thomas  H.  Benton,  of  Missouri^  claims  the  merit 
of  having  suggested  the  tactics  which  resulted  in  General 
Jackson's  being  called  to  the  field.  In  the  House  of  Kepre- 

*  General  Jackson's  Fine.     By  Charles  J.  Ingersoll.     Page  28. 


362  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1812. 

sentatives,  on  the  presentation  of  General  Jackson's  sword  to 
Congress  in  1855,  Mr.  Benton  said  : — 

"  When  a  warrior  or  a  statesman  is  seen  in  the  midst  of  his  career,  and 
in  the  fullness  of  his  glory,  showing  himself  to  be  in  his  natural  place,  peo 
ple  overlook  his  previous  steps,  and  suppose  he  had  been  called  by  a  gen 
eral  voice— by  wise  counsels— to  the  fulfillment  of  a  natural  destiny.  In  u 
few  instances  it  is  so ;  in  the  greater  part  not.  In  the  greater  part  there 
is  a  toilsome  uncertainty,  discouraging  and  mortifying  progress  to  be  gone 
through  before  the  future  resplendent  man  is  able  to  get  on  the  theater 
which  is  to  give  him  the  use  of  his  talent.  So  it  was  with  Jackson.  He 
had  his  difficulties  to  surmount,  and  surmounted  them.  He  conquered 
savage  tribes  and  the  conquerors  of  the  conquerors  of  Europe  ;  but  he  had 
to  conquer  his  own  government  first — and  did  it — and  that  was  for  him 
the  most  difficult  of  the  two ;  for,  while  his  military  victories  were  the  reg 
ular  result  of  a  genius  for  war  and  brave  troops  to  execute  his  plans — en 
abling  him  to  command  success — his  civil  victory  over  his  own  government 
was  the  result  of  chances  and  accidents,  and  the  contrivances  of  others,  iii 
which  he  could  have  but  little  hand,  and  no  control.  I  proceed  to  give 
"some  view  of  this  inside  and  preliminary  history,  and  have  some  qualifica 
tion  for  the  task,  having  taken  some  part,  though  not  great,  in  all  that  I 
relate. 

"  Eetired  from  the  United  States  Senate,  of  which  he  had  been  a  mem 
ber,  and  from  the  supreme  judicial  bench  of  his  State,  on  which  he  had  sat 
as  judge,  this  future  warrior  and  President — and  alike  illustrious  in  both 
characters — was  living  upon  his  farm,  on  the  banks  of  the  Cumberland, 
when  the  war  of  1812  broke  out.  He  was  a  Major  General  in  the  Ten 
nessee  militia — the  only  place  he  would  continue  to  hold,  and  to  which  he 
had  been  elected  by  the  contingency  of  one  vote — so  close  was  the  chance 
for  a  miss  in  this  first  step.  His  friends  believed  that  he  had  military  genius, 
and  proposed  him  for  the  brigadier's  appointment  which  was  alloted  to  the 
West.  That  appointment  was  given  to  another,  and  Jackson  remained 
unnoticed  on  his  farm.  Soon  another  appointment  of  general  was  alloted 
to  the  West.  Jackson  was  proposed  again,  and  was  again  left  to  attend  to 
his  farm.  Then  a  batch  of  generals,  as  they  were  called,  was  authorized  by 
law — six  at  a  time — and  from  all  parts  of  the  Union ;  and  then  his  friends 
believed  that  surely  his  time  had  come.  Not  so  the  fact.  The  six  appoint 
ments  went  elsewhere,  and  the  hero  patriot,  who  was  born  to  lead  armies 
to  victory,  was  still  left  to  the  care  of  his  fields,  while  incompetent  men 
were  leading  our  troops  to  defeat,  to  captivity,  to  slaughter ;  for  that  is  the 
way  the  war  opened.  The  door  to  military  service  seemed  to  be  closed 
and  barred  against  him ;  and  was  so,  so  far  as  the  government  was  con 
cerned. 


1812.]      JACKSON     AND     THE     VOLUNTEERS.  363 

"  It  may  be  wondered  why  this  repugnance  to  the  appointment  of 
Jackson,  who,  though  not  yet  greatly  distinguished,  was  still  a  man  of  mark 
— had  been  a  Senator  and  a  supreme  judge,  and  was  still  a  Major  General, 
and  a  man  of  tried  and  heroic  courage.  I  can  tell  the  reason.  He  had  a 
great  many  home  enemies,  for  he  was  a  man  of  decided  temper,  had  a  great 
many  contests,  no  compromises,  always  went  for  a  clean  victory  or  a  clean 
defeat ;  though  placable  after  the  contest  was  over.  That  was  one  reason, 
but  not  the  main  one.  The  administration  had  a  prejudice  against  him  on 
account  of  Colonel  Burr,  with  whom  he  had  been  associated  in  the  American 
Senate,  and  to  whom  he  gave  a  hospitable  reception  in  his  house  at  the 
time  of  his  western  expedition,  relying  upon  his  assurance  that  his  designs 
were  against  the  Spanish  dominion  in  Mexico,  and  not  against  the  integrity 
of  this  Union.  These  were  some  of  the  causes,  not  all,  of  Jackson's  rejec 
tion  from  federal  military  employment. 

"  I  was  young  then,  and  one  of  his  aids,  and  believed  in  his  military 
talents  and  patriotism,  greatly  attached  to  him,  and  was  grieved  and  vexed 
to  see  him  passed  by  when  so  much  incompetence  was  preferred.  Besides, 
I  was  to  go  with  him,  and  his  appointment  would  be  partly  my  own.  I 
was  vexed,  as  were  all  his  friends,  but  I  did  not  despair  as  most  of  them 
did.  I  turned  from  the  government  to  ourselves — to  our  own  resources, 
and  looked  for  the  chapter  of  accidents  to  turn  up  a  chance  for  incidental 
employment,  confident  that  he  could  do  the  rest  for  himselfj  if  he  could  only 
get  a  start.  I  was  in  this  mood  in  my  office,  a  young  lawyer  with  more 
books  than  briefs,  when  the  tardy  mail  of  that  time,  '  one  raw  and  gusty 
day'  in  February,  1812,  brought  an  act  of  Congress  authorizing  the  Presi 
dent  to  accept  organized  bodies  of  volunteers  to  the  extent  of  fifty  thou 
sand — to  serve  for  one  year,  and  to  be  called  into  service  when  some  emer 
gency  should  require  it. 

"  Here  was  a  chance.  I  knew  that  Jackson  could  raise  a  general's 
command,  and  trusted  to  events  for  him  to  be  called  out,  and  felt  that  one 
year  was  more  than  enough  for  him  to  prove  himself.  I  drew  up  a  plan, 
rode  thirty  miles  to  his  house  that  same  raw  day  in  February — rain,  hail, 
sleet,  wind — and  such  roads  as  we  then  had  there  in  winter — deep  in  rich 
mud  and  mixed  with  ice.  I  arrived  at  the  Hermitage — a  name  then  but 
little  known — at  nightfall,  and  found  him  solitary,  and  almost  alone,  but 
not  quite  ;  for  it  was  the  evening  mentioned  in  the  '  Thirty  Years'  View,' 
when  I  found  him  with  the  lamb  and  the  child  between  his  knees.  I  laid 
the  plan  before  him.  He  was  struck  with  it,  adopted  it,  acted  upon  it. 
We  began  to  raise  volunteer  companies. 

"  While  this  was  going  on,  an  order  arrived  from  the  War  Department 
to  the  Governor  (Willie  Blount)  to  detach  fifteen  hundred  militia  to  the 
Lower  Mississippi,  the  object  to  meet  the  British,  then  expected  to  make 
an  attempt  on  New  Orleans.  The  Governor  was  a  friend  to  Jackson  and 


364  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1812. 

to  his  country.  He  agreed  to  accept  his  three  thousand  volunteers  instead 
of  the  fifteen  hundred  drafted  militia.  He  issued  an  address  to  his  divis 
ion.  I  galloped  to  the  muster-grounds  and  harangued  the  young  men. 
The  success  was  ample.  Three  regiments  were  completed — Coffee,  Wil 
liam  Hall,  Benton,  the  colonels." 

A  striking  story  ;  made  such  by  grouping  particulars 
which  do  not  belong  together.  That  Mr.  Benton  made 
the  suggestion  with  regard  to  raising  a  general's  command 
of  volunteers,  we  are  bound  to  believe  ;  that  he  was  active 
in  the  execution  of  the  scheme  is  well  known  ;  that  the 
administration  were  not  well  affected  towards  General  Jack 
son  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  is  not  to  be  denied.  Other 
parts  of  Mr.  Benton's  fluent  narrative  will  not  bear  the 
test,  of  a  comparison  with  dates  and  documents  ;  which  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at,  when  we  consider  that  the  orator  was 
speaking  of  events  that  occurred  thirty- three  years  before. 
Neither  in  Mr.  Benton' s  Abridgment  of  the  Congressional 
proceedings,  nor  anywhere  else,  can  I  find  record  or  trace  of 
such  a  profuse  creation  of  generals  before  the  declaration  of 
war  in  June,  1812. 

So  far  as  I  can  discover,  it  was  General  Jackson's  charac 
teristic  promptitude  in  tendering  his  services,  and  the  services 
of  his  division,  and  that  alone,  which  softened  the  repug 
nance  of  the  President  and  his  cabinet.  Whatever  may  have 
been  the  feelings  of  the  administration  toward  him,  its  con 
duct  was  just  and  courteous.  It  accepted  him  as  promptly 
as  he  offered  himself ;  employed  him  the  moment  there  was 
any  thing  for  him  to  do  ;  promoted  him  as  soon  as  he  had 
given  fair  evidence  of  capacity  ;  bestowed  upon  each  of  his 
achievements  its  due  of  applause.  It  could  have  done  more, 
but  it  was  not  bound  to  do  more.  It  could  have  given  him  a 
commission  at  the  commencement  of  hostilities.  But  what 
had  General  Jackson  done  to  deserve  or  invite  a  distinction 
so  marked  ?  Besides,  is  it  not  the  fate  of  all  nations  (ex 
cept  the  French)  to  lose  the  first  campaign  of  every  war, 
lose  a  fine  army  or  two,  squander  some  millions  of  money, 
throw  away  some  thousands  of  lives,  tarnish  the  old  honors 


1812.]      JACKSON     AND     THE     VOLUNTEERS.  365 

and  lessen  the  ancient  prestige,  all  for  the  sake  of  sparing  the 
feelings  of  certain  generals,  who  have  proved  their  unfitness 
to  command  to-day  by  having  distinguished  themselves  in 
a  war  of  twenty  years  ago  ?  Every  war  develops  its  own 
hero. 

Observe  these  dates  : — The  war  was  declared  on  the  12th 
of  June.  Such  news  is  not  carried,  but  flies  ;  and  so  may 
have  reached  Nashville  by  the  20th.  On  the  25th,  General 
Jackson  offered  to  the  President,  through  Governor  Blount, 
his  own  services  and  those  of  twenty-five  hundred  volunteers 
of  his  division ;  the  volunteers,  doubtless,  to  which  Colonel 
Benton  refers.  A  response  to  the  declaration  of  war  so 
timely  and  practical,  could  not  but  have  been  extremely 
gratifying  to  an  administration  (never  too  confident  in  itself) 
that  was  then  entering  upon  a  contest  to  which  a  powerful 
minority  was  opposed  ;  and  with  a  presidential  election  only 
four  months  distant.  The  reply  of  the  Secretary  of  War, 
dated  July  llth,  was  as  cordial  as  a  communication  of  the 
kind  could  be.  The  President,  he  said,  had  received  the  ten 
der  of  service  by  General  Jackson  and  the  volunteers  under 
his  command  "  with  peculiar  satisfaction."  "  In  accepting 
their  services,"  added  the  Secretary,  "  the  President  can  not 
withhold  an  expression  of  his  admiration  of  the  zeal  and 
ardor  by  which  they  are  animated."  Governor  Blount  was 
evidently  more  than  satisfied  with  the  result  of  the  offer  ;  he 
publicly  thanked  General  Jackson  and  the  volunteers  for  the 
honor  they  had  done  the  State  of  Tennessee  by  making  it. 

Thus,  we  find  General  Jackson's  services  accepted  by  the 
President  before  hostilities  could  have  seriously  begun.  The 
summer  passed,  however,  and  the  autumn  came,  and  still  he 
was  at  home  upon  his  farm,  waging  war  only  with  unhappy 
Silas  Dinsmore. 

After  Hull's  failure  in  Canada,  fears  were  entertained  that 
the  British  would  direct  their  released  forces  against  the  ports 
of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  particularly  New  Orleans,  where  Gen 
eral  James  Wilkinson  still  commanded  October  21st,  the 
Governor  of  Tennessee  was  requested  to  dispatch  fifteen  hun- 
VOL.  i. — 24 


366  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1812. 

dred  of  the  Tennessee  troops  to  the  reinforcement  of  General 
Wilkinson.  November  1st,  Governor  Blount  issued  the  requi 
site  orders  to  General  Jackson,  who  entered  at  once  upon  the 
task  of  preparing  for  the  descent  of  the  river  with  his  volun 
teers. 

The  following  is  the  address  issued  by  the  General,  the 
joint  production  of  himself  and  his  aid-de-camp,  Benton  : — 

"  In  publishing  the  letter  of  Governor  Blount,  the  Major  General  makes 
known  to  the  valiant  volunteers  who  have  tendered  their  services  every 
thing  which  is  necessary  for  them  at  this  time  to  know.  In  requesting  the 
officers  of  the  respective  companies  to  meet  in  Nashville,  on  the  21st  inst., 
the  Governor  expects  to  have  the  benefit  of  their  advice  in  recommending 
the  field  officers,  who  are  to  be  selected  from  among  the  officers  who  have 
already  volunteered ;  also  to  fix  upon  the  time  when  the  expedition  shall 
move,  to  deliver  the  definite  instructions,  and  to  commission  the  officers  in 
the  name  of  the  President  of  the  United  States.  Companies  which  do  not 
contain  sixty-six  rank  and  file  are  required  to  complete  their  complement 
to  that  number.  A  second  lieutenant  should  be  added  where  the  company 
contains  but  one. 

"  The  Major  General  has  now  arrived  at  a  crisis  when  he  can  address 
the  volunteers  with  the  feelings  of  a  soldier.  The  State  to  which  he 
belongs  is  now  to  act  a  part  in  the  honorable  contest  of  securing  the  rights 
and  liberties  of  a  great  and  rising  republic.  In  placing  before  the  volun 
teers  the  illustrious  actions  of  their  fathers  in  the  war  of  the  Ee  solution,  he 
presumes  to  hope  that  they  will  not  prove  themselves  a  degenerate  race, 
nor  suffer  it  to  be  said  that  they  are  unworthy  of  the  blessing  which  the 
blood  of  so  many  thousand  heroes  has  purchased  for  them.  The  theater 
on  which  they  are  required  to  act  is  interesting  to  them  in  every  point  of 
view.  Every  man  of  the  western  country  turns  his  eyes  intuitively  upon 
the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  He  there  beholds  the  only  outlet  by  which 
his  produce  can  reach  the  markets  of  foreign  nations  or  of  the  Atlantic 
States.  Blocked  up,  all  the  fruits  of  his  industry  rot  upon  his  hands ;  open, 
and  he  carries  on  a  commerce  with  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  To  the 
people  of  the  western  country  is  then  peculiarly  committed,  by  nature  her 
self,  the  defense  of  the  lower  Mississippi  and  the  city  of  New  Orleans.  At 
the  approach  of  an  enemy  in  that  quarter  the  whole  western  world  should 
pour  forth  its  sons  to  meet  the  invader  and  drive  him  back  into  the  sea. 
Brave  volunteers !  it  is  to  the  defense  of  this  place,  so  interesting  to  you, 
that  you  are  now  ordered  to  repair.  Let  us  show  ourselves  conscious  of 
the  honor  and  importance  of  the  charge  which  has  been  committed  to  us. 
By  the  alacrity  with  which  we  obey  the  orders  of  the  President  let  us 


1812.]       JACKSON     AND     THE     VOLUNTEERS.          367 

demonstrate  to  our  brothers  in  all  parts  of  the  Union  that  the  people  of 
Tennessee  are  worthy  of  being  called  to  the  defense  of  the  republic. 

"  The  Generals  of  Brigade  attached  to  the  Second  Division  will  commu 
nicate  these  orders  to  the  officers  commanding  volunteer  companies  with 
all  possible  dispatch,  using  expresses,  and  forwarding  a  statement  of  the 
expense  to  the  Major  General. 

"  ANDREW  JACKSON, 

"  November  14th,  1812.  Major  General  Second  Division  T." 

The  tenth  of  December  was  the  day  appointed  for  the 
troops  to  rendezvous  at  Nashville.  The  Governor's  order 
stated  that  "the  volunteers  will  be  expected  to  arm  and 
equip  themselves  with  their  own  arms,  including  rifles,  as  far 
as  practicable,  and  to  furnish  themselves,  as  fully  as  may  be 
conveniently  in  their  power  to  do,  with  ammunition,  camp 
equipage,  and  blankets  ;  for  which  a  compensation  may  con 
fidently  be  expected  to  be  made  by  government,  to  be  allowed 
and  settled  for  in  the  usual  mode  and  at  the  usual  rates." 
The  General  added  to  this  a  rough  description  of  the  "  uni 
form"  in  which  the  troops  were  to  appear  :  "  Dark  blue  or 
brown,"  said  he,  "has  been  prescribed  for  service,  of  home 
spun  or  not,  at  the  election  of  the  wearer  ;  hunting-shirts  or 
coats,  at  the  option  of  the  different  companies,  with  panta 
loons  and  dark-colored  socks.  White  pantaloons,  vests,  etc., 
may  be  worn  upon  parade.  As  the  expedition  will  not  ter 
minate  under  five  or  six  months,  and  will  include  the  winter 
and  spring,  the  volunteers  will  see  the  propriety  of  adapting 
their  clothing  in  quantity  and  quality  to  both  seasons.  The 
field  officers  will  wear  the  uniform  which  is  prescribed  for 
officers  of  the  same  grade  in  the  army  of  the  United  States. 
Company  officers  will  conform  to  the  same  regulations,  if 
convenient  ;  otherwise,  they  will  conform  to  the  uniform  of 
their  companies." 

The  climate  of  Tennessee,  generally  so  pleasant,  is  liable 
to  brief  periods  of  severe  cold.  Twice,  within  the  memory 
of  living  persons,  the  Cumberland  has  been  frozen  over  at 
Nashville  ;  and  as  often  snow  has  fallen  there  to  the  depth 
of  a  foot.  It  so  chanced  that  the  day  named  for  the  assem- 


368  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1812. 

bling  of  the  troops  was  the  coldest  that  had  been  known  at 
Nashville  for  many  years,  and  there  was  deep  snow  on  the 
ground.  Such  was  the  enthusiasm,  however,  of  the  volun 
teers,  that  more  than  two  thousand  presented  themselves  on 
the  appointed  day.  The  General  was  no  less  puzzled  than 
pleased  by  this  alacrity.  Nashville  was  still  little  more  than 
a  large  village,  not  capable  of  affording  the  merest  shelter  to 
such  a  concourse  of  soldiers  ;  who,  in  any  weather  not  extra 
ordinary,  would  have  disdained  a  roof.  There  was  no  resource 
for  the  mass  of  the  troops  but  to  camp  out.  Fortunately, 
the  efficient  quarter-master,  Major  William  B.  Lewis,  had 
provided  a  thousand  cords  of  wood  for  the  use  of  the  men  ;  a 
quantity  that  was  supposed  to  be  sufficient  to  last  till  they 
embarked.  Every  stick  of  the  wood  was  burnt  the  first  night 
in  keeping  the  men  from  freezing.  From  dark  until  nearly 
daylight  the  General  and  the  quarter-master  were  out  among 
the  troops,  employed  in  providing  for  this  unexpected  and 
perilous  exigency  ;  seeing  that  drunken  men  were  brought 
within  reach  of  a  fire,  and  that  no  drowsy  sentinel  slept  the 
sleep  of  death. 

A  gentleman  of  Nashville  well  remembers  the  sudden 
rage  of  the  General  on  entering  the  tavern,  about  six  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  after  this  night  of  tramping  in  the  snow  and 
cold.  Some  one  who  had  passed  the  night  comfortably  in 
bed,  began  to  find  fault  with  the  authorities  for  having  called 
together  such  a  mass  of  troops  without  having  provided  shel 
ter  for  them.  It  was  a  "  shame,"  he  maintained,  that  the 
men  should  have  been  out  on  such  a  night,  while  the  officers 
had  the  best  accommodations  in  the  town. 

"  You  d — d  infernal  scoundrel,"  roared  the  General, 
"  sowing  disaffection  among  the  troops.  Why,  the  quarter 
master  and  I  have  been  up  all  night,  making  the  men  com 
fortable.  Let  me  hear  no  more  such  talk,  or  I'm  d — d  if  I 
don't  ram  that  red  hot  andiron  down  your  throat." 

The  fiery  man  !  but  as  patient  as  Job  while  he  was  out 
in  the  blustering  winter's  night  looking  after  his  cold  soldiers. 

The  extreme  cold  soon  passed  away,  however,  and  the 


1812.]       JACKSON     AND     THE     VOLUNTEERS.         369 

organization  of  the  troops  proceeded.  In  a  few  days  the  little 
army  was  in  readiness  ;  one  regiment  of  cavalry,  commanded 
by  Colonel  John  Coffee,  six  hundred  and  seventy  in  num 
ber  ;  two  regiments  of  infantry,  fourteen  hundred  men  in  all, 
one  regiment  commanded  by  Colonel  William  Hall,  the  other 
by  Colonel  Thomas  H.  Benton.  Major  William  B.  Lewis,  the 
General's  neighbor  and  friend,  was  the  quarter-master.  Wil 
liam  Carroll,  a  young  man  from  Pennsylvania,  a  new  favorite 
of  the  General's,  was  the  brigade  inspector.  The  General's 
aid  and  secretary  was  John  Reid,  long  his  companion  in  the 
field,  afterward  his  biographer.  The  troops  were  of  the  very 
best  material  the  State  afforded :  planters,  business  men, 
their  sons  and  grandsons — a  large  proportion  of  them  de 
scended  from  revolutionary  soldiers  who  had  settled  in  great 
numbers  in  the  beautiful  valley  of  the  Cumberland.  John 
Coffee  was  a  host  in  himself ;  a  plain,  brave,  modest,  stal 
wart  man,  devoted  to  his  chief,  to  Tennessee  and  to  the 
Union.  He  had  been  recently  married  to  Polly  Donelson, 
the  daughter  of  Captain  John  Donelson,  who  had  given  them 
the  farm  on  which  they  lived. 

A  letter  from  Colonel  Coffee  to  his  father-in-law,  written 
as  he  was  about  to  leave  the  State  with  his  mounted  regi 
ment,  will  serve  to  show  the  simplicity  and  kindliness  of  the 
man.  No  doubt  many  of  his  troopers  wrote  similar  letters  on 
the  eve  of  their  departure  : — 

"  A  sense  of  duty  and  of  justice  have  compelled  me  to  address  this  line, 
together  with  its  enclosure.  I  did  not  see  the  propriety  of  such  an  act 
until  of  very  late,  and  even  now  it  may  seem  to  you  unnecessary.  Yet 
when  I  reflect  on  the  uncertainty  of  the  life  of  man,  and  the  time  I  am 
about  to  leave  my  native  country  for  a  more  unhealthy  climate,  independ 
ent  of  any  dangers  I  may  be  thrown  in  by  a  state  of  war,  I  should  certainly 
be  remiss  from  my  duty  were  I  not  in  the  most  equitable  manner  to  make 
provision  for  my  family  were  it  to  be  my  lot  not  to  return  again.  I  have 
drawn  up  an  instrument  expressive  of  my  wishes,  and  which  I  here  enclose 
to  you.  This,  if  it  please  the  Almighty  that  I  never  return  to  my  beloved 
wife  and  infant  daughter,  is  my  last  will  and  testament,  which,  I  shall  rest 
assured  from  your  parental  goodness,  you  will  have  executed  without  devi 
ation  as  far  as  is  practicable.  I  will  make  other  memorandums,  and  deposit 


370  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1812. 

them,  that,  in  the  last  event,  will  enable  you  to  understand  what  lands  3 
have  a  claim  to,  and  how  they  are  situated,  as  well  as  all  my  other  busi- 


"  This  letter  is  only  intended  for  your  own  eye  until  it  is  ascertained  I 
am  no  more.  Don't  speak  of  it  to  any  person  whatever ;  for  if  Polly  was 
brought  to  so  serious  a  thought,  it  would  render  her  much  more  uneasy. 
I  don't  wish,  if  I  return,  any  person  but  yourself  to  know  anything  of  it. 
I  will  make  notes  and  direct  them  where  you  may  get  them  on  all  my 
business. 

"  Notwithstanding  this  provision,  I  wish  you  to  understand  I  feel  n« 
dread  but  that  I  shall  see  many  happy  years  with  my  family  and  friends 
after  this — yet  we  know  not  what  may  happen.  I  fear  very  much  I  have 
made  a  bad  arrangement  of  my  farm  for  the  present  year.  I  did  expect 
Mr.  Harris  to  have  moved  up  before  this,  and  would  have  had  things  going 
on  in  good  order  before  now,  but  am  advised  he  is  not  yet  gone,  which 
leads  me  to  fear  he'll  not  do  much.  Can  I  beg  of  you,  if  after  a  few  weeks 
things  don't  go  on  better,  you  will  try  and  hire  a  man  to  make  a  crop  for 
me  ?  If  you  should  think  it  best  to  do  so,  make  any  bargain  you  can,  and 
which  you  think  best;  either  part  of  the  crop,  or  standing  wages,  if  Polly 
is  content  with  the  person.  I  will  write  you  again  from  Columbia,  when 
I  will  be  able  to  say  whether  or  not  Harris  will  move  up.  I  am  distressed 
to  get  away  from  here  on  the  line  of  march.  I  think  then  the  worst  will 
be  over.  As  great  as  my  anxiety  has  been,  I  could  not  possibly  leave 
camp  one  day  to  go  home,  One  day  since  I  saw  you.  I  expect  to  be  off 
Tuesday  morning. 

"  Since  I  wrote  the  foregoing  part  of  this  letter,  S.  Harris  called  here 
on  his  way,  moving  up  a  part  of  his  plunder.  He  has  promised  me  he  will 
do  every  thing  he  can  for  me  on  the  farm,  yet  I  fear  all  won't  be  much. 
As  you  are  passing,  and  when  at  my  house,  will  thank  you  to  give  any 
orders  you  may  think  best  towards  making  a  crop  next  season. 

"  Please  make  my  respects  to  Mrs.  Donelson  and  all  the  children,  and 
accept  of  them  yourself,  whilst  I  remain  your  obedient  servant, 

"JOHN  COFFEE."* 

In  this  spirit,  Colonel  John  Coffee  began  his  brilliant 
military  career. 

There  was  still  a  delay  of  several  days,  before  the  boats 
for  the  transportation  of  the  infantry  could  be  got  ready.  On 
one  of  these  days,  there  was  a  grand  review  of  the  army  by 
the  Governor  of  the  State,  who,  upon  retiring  from  the  field, 

*  MSS.  of  Tennessee  Historical  Society. 


1812.]        JACKSON     AND     THE     VOLUNTEERS.  371 

addressed  a  letter  to  General  Jackson,  complimenting  the 
troops  upon  their  martial  appearance,  their  orderly  conduct, 
and  their  evident  zeal  for  the  service.  To  this  letter,  the 
General  sent  the  following  reply  : — 

"It  is  with  the  greatest  pleasure  and  satisfaction  that  the  Major  Gen 
eral,  in  behalf  of  himself  and  the  brave  volunteers  whom  he  has  the  honor 
to  command,  acknowledges  the  receipt  of  your  Excellency's  polite  and 
highly  flattering  address,  which  he  has  caused  to  be  read  in  general  orders 
on  the  19th  instant.  They  feel  much  gratified  that  their  conduct,  both  in 
camp  and  on  parade,  has  merited  the  approbation  of  your  Excellency;  and 
they  cherish  a  belief,  that  they  never  will  so  far  forget  themselves,  the 
State  of  which  they  have  the  honor  to  be  citizens,  and  the  cause  which  has 
elicited  the  spark  of  patriotism  from  every  bosom  of  the  volunteers,  as  to 
act  in  any  way  derogatory  to  the  strictest  rules  of  military  discipline  and 
subordination.  It  is  true  that  the  volunteers  have  experienced  hardships 
and  privations  in  the  camp,  and  have  been  exposed  to  the  '  severity  of  the 
severest  cold  weather  ever  known  here  for  years  past,  and  that,  too,  with 
out  a  murmur/ — but  these  hardships,  as  great  as  they  may  seem  to  be,  are 
but  inconsiderable,  when  compared  to  those  which  they  are  willing  to  en 
dure,  when  required,  for  the  benefit  of  the  service. 

"  We  have  changed  the  garb  of  citizens  for  that  of  soldiers.  In  doing 
this,  we  hope  none  of  us  have  changed  our  principles  ;  for,  let  it  be  recol 
lected,  as  an  invariable  rule,  that  good  citizens  make  good  soldiers.  The 
volunteers  have  drawn  their  swords  and  shouldered  their  muskets  for  no 
other  purpose  than  that  of  defending  their  country  against  the  hostile 
attacks  of  their  enemies,  the  British,  and  their  barbarous  allies,  the  Indians. 
May  they  never  be  returned  to  the  scabbard  until  the  enemies  of  America, 
of  every  denomination,  be  humbled  in  the  dust  and  constrained  to  yield 
that  which,  in  vain,  has  been  so  often  and  so  long  demanded  by  amicable 
negotiation — JUSTICE.  We  flatter  ourselves  that  your  Excellency  will  do 
us  the  justice  to  believe  that  there  is  not  an  individual  among  the  volun 
teers  who  would  not  prefer  perishing  in  the  field  of  battle — who  would  not 
cheerfully  yield  his  life  in  the  defense  of  his  country,  than  return  to  the 
'  bosom  of  his  family'  and  his  friends,  covered  with  shame,  ignominy,  and 
disgrace. 

"  Perish  our  friends — perish  our  wives — perish  our  children  (the  dear 
est  pledges  of  Heaven) — nay,  perish  all  earthly  considerations — but  let  the 
honor  and  fame  of  a  volunteer  soldier  be  untarnished  and  immaculate. 
We  now  enjoy  Liberties,  political,  civil,  and  religious,  that  no  other  nation 
on  earth  possesses.  May  we  never  survive  them !  No ;  rather  let  us  perish 
in  maintaining  them.  And  if  we  must  yield,  where  is  the  man  that  would 


372  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1812. 

not  prefer  being  buried  in  the  ruins  of  his  country,  than  live  the  ignomin 
ious  slave  of  haughty  lords  and  unfeeling  tyrants  ?  We  hope  that  your 
Excellency  shall  never  blush  for  the  honor  of  Tennessee.  Your  Excel 
lency  will  not  call  it  presumption,  when  the  volunteers  say  that  it  is  their 
full  determination  to  return  covered  with  laurels,  or  die  endeavoring  to 
gather  them  in  the  bloody  field  of  Mars ! 

"  Accept  from  the  General,  for  himself  and  the  volunteers,  the  homage 
of  the  highest  confidence  and  respect. 

"  ANDREW  JACKSON,  Major  General. 

"  For  himself,  and  in  behalf  of  the  volunteers  under  his  command." 

These  writings  show,  better  than  any  other  words  could, 
the  ardor  and  high  hope  that  animated  the  bosoms  of  the 
volunteers.  The  General  himself  was  full  of  the  great  busi 
ness  in  hand.  If  anything  dimmed  the  brightness  of  the 
prospect  before  him,  it  was  the  fact  that  the  commanding 
officer  at  New  Orleans  was  the  man  whom,  of  all  others  in 
the  world,  he  despised — General  James  Wilkinson.  He  felt 
a  premonition,  that  on  his  arrival  in  New  Orleans,  he  should 
have  a  collision  of  some  kind  with  Wilkinson.  So  confi 
dently  did  he  expect  it,  that  he  took  his  dueling  pistols  with 
him,  and  a  small  supply  of  a  very  superior  kind  of  powder 
that  was  formerly  employed  on  the  "  field  of  honor." 

On  the  7th  of  January,  all  was  ready.  The  infantry  em 
barked,  and  the  flotilla  dropped  down  the  river.  Colonel 
Coffee  and  the  mounted  men  marched  across  the  country, 
and  were  to  rejoin  the  General  at  Natchez.  "  I  have  the 
pleasure  to  inform  you,"  wrote  Jackson  to  the  Secretary  of 
War,  just  before  leaving  home,  "  that  I  am  now  at  the  head 
of  2,070  volunteers,  the  choicest  of  our  citizens,  who  go  at 
the  call  of  their  country  to  execute  the  will  of  the  govern 
ment,  who  have  no  constitutional  scruples  ;  and  if  the  gov 
ernment  orders,  will  rejoice  at  the  opportunity  of  placing  the 
American  eagle  on  the  ramparts  of  MOBILE,  PENSACOLA,  AND 
FORT  ST.  AUGUSTINE,  effectually  banishing  from  the  southern 
coasts  all  British  influence." 

Not  yet,  General,  not  yet.     Two  years  later,  perhaps. 


1813.]      THE    GENEKAL    WINS     HIS     NICKNAME.        373 

CHAPTER    XXXIV. 

THE     GENERAL    WINS    HIS     NICKNAME. 

DOWN  the  Cumberland  to  the  Ohio  ;  down  the  Ohio  to 
the  Mississippi  •  down  the  Mississippi  toward  New  Orleans  ; 
stopping  here  and  there  for  supplies  ;  delayed  for  days  at  a 
time  by  the  ice  in  the  swift  Ohio  ;  grounding  a  boat  now  and 
then  ;  losing  one  altogether  ; — the  fleet  pursued  its  course, 
craunching  through  the  floating  masses,  but  making  fair 
progress,  for  the  space  of  thirty-nine  days. 

The  weather  was  often  very  cold  and  tempestuous,  and 
the  frail  boats  afforded  only  an  imperfect  shelter.  But  all 
the  little  army,  from  the  General  to  the  privates,  were  in  the 
highest  spirits,  and  burned  with  the  desire  to  do  their  part  in 
restoring  the  diminished  prestige  of  the  American  arms  ;  to 
atone  for  the  shocking  failures  of  the  North  by  making  new 
conquests  at  the  South.  On  the  15th  of  February,  at  dawn 
of  day,  they  had  left  a  thousand  miles  of  winding  stream  be 
hind  them,  and  saw  before  them  the  little  town  of  Natchez. 
The  fleet  came  to.  The  men  were  rejoiced  to  hear  that  Colo 
nel  Coffee  and  his  mounted  regiment  had  already  arrived  in 
the  vicinity. 

Here  General  Jackson  received  a  dispatch  from  General 
Wilkinson,  requesting  him  to  halt  at  Natchez,  as  neither 
quarters  nor  provisions  were  ready  for  them  at  New  Orleans ; 
nor  had  an  enemy  yet  made  his  appearance  in  the  southern 
waters.  Wilkinson  added,  that  he  had  received  no  orders 
respecting  the  Tennesseeans,  knew  not  their  destination,  and 
should  not  think  of  yielding  his  command,  "  until  regularly 
relieved  by  superior  authority."  Jackson  assented  to  the 
policy  of  remaining  at  Natchez  for  further  instructions  ;  but, 
with  regard  to  General  Wilkinson's  uneasiness  on  the  ques 
tion  of  rank,  he  said,  in  his  reply,  "  I  have  marched  with  the 
true  spirit  of  a  soldier  to  serve  my  country  at  any  and  every 


374  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

point  where  service  can  be  rendered,"  and  "  the  detachment 
under  my  command  shall  be  kept  in  complete  readiness  to 
move  to  any  point  at  which  an  enemy  may  appear,  at  the 
shortest  notice."  So,  at  Natchez,  the  troops  disembarked, 
and,  encamping  in  a  pleasant  and  salubrious  place,  a  few 
miles  from  the  town,  passed  their  days  in  learning  the  duties 
of  the  soldier. 

The  Nashville  papers  of  the  spring  of  1813  show  that  the 
whole  heart  of  Western  Tennessee  went  down  the  river  with 
this  expedition.  Every  issue  from  the  press  teemed  with 
paragraphs  and  speculations  respecting  it.  Diaries  of  the 
voyage  were  published.  One  of  these,  which  was  somewhat 
bombastic  and  comically  exact,  called  forth  a  very  tolerable 
burlesque,  entitled  "  A  Journal  of  the  Perigrinations  of  my 
Tom-cat ;  after  the  manner  of  a  Journal  of  a  Voyage  from 
Nashville  to  New  Orleans,  by  the  Tennessee  Volunteers." 
Kumors  and  conjectures  respecting  the  destination  and  con 
duct  of  the  corps  were  the  staple  of  conversation.  From  the 
numberless  paragraphs  in  the  Nashville  Whig  I  copy  a  few 
sentences,  which,  tame  and  ordinary  as  they  now  appear,  were 
devoured  with  intensest  interest  then. 

A  letter  dated  New  Madrid,  January  31st,  stated  that 
"  the  detachment  passed  New  Madrid  on  this  day.  The  troops 
are  healthy,  and  continue  in  high  spirits.  They  are  said  to 
have  made  rapid  progress  in  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  dis 
cipline." 

A  letter  from  General  Jackson,  dated,  Natchez,  February 
15th,  contained  a  paragraph  which  summed  up  the  whole 
history  of  the  voyage  :  "At  seven  o'clock  this  morning  I 
reached  this  point,  after  having  been  detained  seven  days  on 
account  of  obstructions  from  the  ice  in  the  Ohio  and  Missis 
sippi.  The  second  regiment  is  up,  and  the  cavalry  will  reach 
the  cantonment  at  Washington  to-morrow  ;  all  well.  No 
accident  of  importance  has  happened  to  us.  One  of  our 
boats  struck  a  sawyer,  and  sunk ;  but  no  lives  were  lost. 
A  few  guns,  bayonets,  and  boxes  were  injured  by  the  fall  of 
some  chimneys  which  were  erected  for  the  accommodation  of 


1813.]     THE    GENERAL    WINS    HIS    NICKNAME.      375 

the  men  ;  but  by  unparalleled  exertions  of  the  officers  and 
men,  the  boat  was  towed  ashore,  and  the  guns,  etc.,  taken 
out." 

Colonel  Thomas  H.  Benton,  the  next  day,  wrote  :  "Gen 
eral  Jackson  is  ordered  by  General  Wilkinson  to  disembark 
here,  and  wait  some  days  until  they  can  prepare  for  us  at 
New  Orleans  ;  so  that,  after  all  our  delays,  we  are  still  too 
fast  for  the  government  agents  below.  Mobile  and  Pensa- 
cola  are  pointed  at  by  those  who  speak  our  destination.  I 
have  nothing  official.  Thus  far  all  is  well." 

Another  officer  wrote  home  a  letter  which  must  have  been 
read  with  proud  hearts  and  glistening  eyes  by  some  of  the 
people  of  Nashville  ;  certainly  by  the  inmates  of  the  Hermit 
age  :  "  The  army,"  said  he,  "  has  much  gratified,  as  well  as 
disappointed  the  expectation  of  the  citizens  of  this  Territory 
— such  has  been  the  good  order  maintained  in  camp.  In 
deed,  with  such  a  commander  at  their  head  as  our  beloved 
Jackson  (so  I  will  term  him,  for  he  is  loved  by  all),  any 
troops  would  behave  well.  But  from  the  patriots  of  Tennes 
see — men  who  have  voluntarily  sacrificed  interest  to  serve 
their  country- — I  do  not  look  merely  for  good  behaviour.  My 
word  for  it,  they  will  give  a  good  account  of  themselves 
should  they  ever  meet  an  enemy  to  contend  with." 

The  month  of  February  passed  away  and  still  the  army 
was  in  camp,  employed  in  nothing  more  serious  than  the 
daily  drill.  No  one  knew  when  they  were  to  move,  where 
they  were  to  go,  nor  what  they  were  to  do.  The  command 
ing  General  was  not  a  little  impatient,  and  even  the  more 
placid  Colonel  Coffee  longed  to  be  in  action.  A  letter  writ 
ten  by  Coffee  to  Captain  Donelson  in  his  tent  on  the  first  of 
March,  after  two  weeks  of  anxious  waiting,  lets  us  into  the 
feeling  of  the  camp  : — 

"  There  is  no  appearance  of  an  enemy  on  any  of  our  southern  coasts  ; 
nor  can  the  best  informed  in  this  country  see  through  the  policy  of  the 
orders.  General  Wilkinson  has  advised  our  halting  here,  and  General 
Jackson  has  approved  the  policy  for  the  present,  knowing  this  to  be  the 


376  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

most  central  point  to  act  from — if  to  the  East,  to  take  possession  of  Florida, 
or  if  below,  we  can  descend  the  river  in  a  very  few  days.  And  should  our 
services  not  be  wanting  at  all,  this  is  the  healthiest  situation  to  remain  at, 
and  nearer  home  when  ordered  to  return.  I  have  heard  of  the  total  defeat 
of  General  Winchester ;  can  not  hear  particulars,  but  the  last  accounts,  and 
the  most  relied  on  here,  say  that  himself  and  about  six  hundred  are  prison 
ers.  I  hope  it  is  no  worse ;  though  some  accounts  say  all  perished  to 
gether  except  a  few  who  made  escapes.  Would  to  God  we  had  been 
ordered  there  instead  of  to  this  place.  If  so,  perhaps  we  could  have  saved 
Winchester  and  his  brave  little  detachment.  I  presume  before  this  reaches 
you  a  final  blow  must  be  struck  by  General  Harrison.  So  many  calami 
ties  have  befallen  the  North- western  army,  I  dread  to  hear  from  it ;  still 
hope  the  policy  will  have  changed  and  a  proper  course  pursued  to  insure 
success. 

"  You  can  not  imagine  the  spirits  of  our  little  army.  Notwithstanding 
we  are  in  an  unfriendly  climate,  we  enjoy  excellent  health  as  yet,  and  we 
do  not  calculate  on  being  kept  here  until  the  sickly  season  comes  on. 
Since  we  commenced  the  line  of  march  from  Tennessee,  all  is  content ;  no 
murmuring  or  complaining.  I  have  not  had  one  half  the  trouble  on  the 
whole  march,  and  since  here,  that  I  experienced  while  lying  at  Nashville  and 
its  vicinity.  In  passing  through  the  Indian  country  I  was  very  well  sup 
plied  with  forage  and  provisions  on  tolerable  terms ;  never  suffered  for  any 
thing.  The  Indians  were  remarkably  friendly  and  accommodating.  When 
we  first  arrived  here,  some  difficulty  appeared  relative  to  furnishing  the 
horses  of  my  regiment,  but  all  is  now  settled  and  going  on  very  well.  We 
get  plenty  of  corn,  and  tolerably  plenty  of  fodder  and  hay.  The  price 
given  for  corn  at  the  river  is  sixty-two  and  a  half  cents  per  bushel,  and 
plenty.  For  fodder  we  give  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  per  hundred, 
delivered  in  camp.  Very  high. 

"  I  live  in  camp  in  my  tent.  We  are  five  miles  from  Natchez ;  have 
never  been  there  until  to-day ;  was  there  about  two  hours.  The  situation 
a  pleasant  one,  though  I  feel  more  at  home  in  my  tent,  where  I  now  write, 
than  anywhere  else.  Never  enjoyed  better  health  than  I  have  since  I  left 
home.  How  is  Polly  doing  ?  Do  keep  her  spirits  up,  and,  as  much  as 
possible,  down  with  you  and  her  friend?."* 

On  the  same  day  the  Gen.  Jackson  relieved  his  patriotic 
impetuosity  by  writing  a  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  War  ;  in 
which  he  suggested  that,  if  there  was  nothing  for  the  Ten- 
nesseeans  to  do  in  the  South,  they  should  be  employed  in  the 

*  MSB.  of  Tennessee  Historical  Society. 


1813.]      THE     GENERAL     WINS     HIS     NICKNAME.      377 

North.  This  idea  so  inflamed  his  mind  that,  a  few  days 
after,  he  wrote  even  to  General  Wilkinson  on  the  subject : — 
"  Should  the  safety  of  the  lower  country  admit,  and  govern 
ment  so  order,  I  would  with  pleasure  march  to  the  lines  of 
Canada,  and  there  offer  my  feeble  aid  to  the  army  of  our 
country,  and  endeavor  to  wipe  off  the  stain  on  our  military 
character  occasioned  by  the  recent  disasters/'  And  when  an 
other  tedious  week  passed,  and  still  no  orders  came,  and  no 
enemy  appeared,  and  the  men  were  beginning  to  sicken  with 
the  spring  heats,  he  wrote  again  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  re 
newing  his  offer  :  "I  can  give  almost  certain  assurances," 
said  the  eager  soldier,  "  that  when  I  return  to  Tennessee  I 
can  augment  my  present  force  to  at  least  three  thousand  men, 
who  would  engage  for  one  year,  if  their  destination  should  be 
towards  the  frontiers  of  Canada." 

Another  week,  and  no  orders  ;  and  yet  another. 

At  length,  on  a  Sunday  morning,  toward  the  end  of 
March,  an  express  from  Washington  reached  the  camp,  and  a 
letter  from  the  War  Department  was  placed  in  the  General's 
hands.  We  can  imagine  the  intensity  of  feeling  with  which 
he  tore  it  open  and  gathered  its  purport,  and  the  fever  of  ex 
citement  which  the  news  of  its  arrival  kindled  throughout  the 
camp.  The  communication  was  signed,  "J.  Armstrong." 
Eustis,  then,  was  out  of  office.  Yes  ;  he  left  the  Department 
February  4th,  and  this  letter  was  written  by  the  new  Secre 
tary  two  days  after.  But  its  contents  ?  Was  it  the  perusal  of 
this  astounding  letter  that  caused  the  General's  hair  to  stand 
on  end,  and  remain  for  ever  after  erect  and  bristling,  unlike 
the  quills  upon  the  fretful  porcupine  ?  Fancy,  if  you  can, 
the  demeanor,  attitude,  countenance,  of  this  fiery  and  generous 
soldier,  as  he  read,  and  re-read,  with  ever-growing  wonder 
and  wrath,  the  following  epistle  : — 

"  WAR  DEPARTMENT,  February  6,  1813. 

"SiR: — The  causes  of  embodying  and  marching  to  New  Orleans  the 
corps  under  your  command  having  ceased  to  exist,  you  will,  on  the  receipt 
of  this  letter,  consider  it  as  dismissed  from  public  service,  and  take  measures 


378  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

to  have  delivered  over  to  Major  General  Wilkinson  all  the  articles  of  public 
property  which  may  have  been  put  into  its  possession. 

"  You  will  accept  for  yourself  and  the  corps  the  thanks  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States. 

"  I  have  the  honor,  etc. 

"  J.  ARMSTRONG. 
"  MAJOR  GENERAL  ANDREW  JACKSON." 

Could  he  believe  his  eyes  ?  Dismissed  ?  Dismissed  where  ? 
Here  ?  Five  hundred  miles  from  home  ?  Dismissed  without 
pay,  without  means  of  transport,  without  provision  for  the 
sick  ?  How  could  he  dismiss  men  so  far  from  home,  to  whom, 
on  receiving  them  from  their  parents,  he  had  promised  to  be  a 
father,  and  either  to  restore  them  in  honor  to  their  arms,  or 
give  them  a  soldier's  burial  ? 

His  resolution  was  taken  on  the  instant  never  to  disband 
his  troops  till  he  had  led  them  back  to  the  borders  of  their 
own  State  ! 

"  I  well  remember  the  day,"  said  Colonel  Benton,  in  the  speech  already 
quoted,  "  when  the  order  came.  The  first  I  knew  of  it  was  a  message 
from  the  General  to  come  to  him  at  his  tent ;  for,  though  as  colonel  of  a 
regiment  I  had  ceased  to  be  aid,  yet  my  place  had  not  been  filled,  and  I 
was  sent  for  as  much  as  ever.  He  showed  me  the  order,  and  also  his 
character,  in  his  instant  determination  not  to  obey  it,  but  to  lead  his  vol 
unteers  home. 

"  He  had  sketched  a  severe  answer  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  gave 
it  to  me  to  copy,  and  arrange  the  matter  of  it.  It  was  very  severe.  I  tried 
hard  to  get  some  parts  softer,  but  impossible.  I  have  never  seen  that  let 
ter  since,  but  would  know  it  if  I  should  meet  it  in  any  form,  anywhere, 
without  names.  I  concurred  with  the  General  in  the  determination  to  take 
home  our  young  troops.  He  then  called  a  '  council '  of  the  field  officers,  as 
he  called  it,  though  there  was  but  little  of  the  council  in  it — the  only  object 
being  to  hear  his  determination,  and  take  measures  for  executing  it.  The 
officers  were  unanimous  in  their  determination  to  support  him ;  but  it  was 
one  of  those  cases  in  which  he  would  have  acted,  not  only  without,  but 
against  a  '  council.1 

"  The  officers  were  unanimous  and  vehement  in  their  determination,  as 
much  so  as  the  General  was  himself;  for  the  volunteers  were  composed  of 
the  best  young  men  of  the  country — farmers'  sons,  themselves  clever  young 
men,  since  filling  high  offices  in  the  State  and  the  federal  governments — 
intrusted  to  these  officers  by  their  fathers  in  full  confidence  that  they  would 


1813.]      THE     GENERAL     WINS     HIS     NICKNAME.         379 

act  a  father's  part  by  them  ;  and  the  recreant  thought  of  turning  them  loose 
on  the  Lower  Mississippi,  five  hundred  miles  from  home,  without  the  means 
of  getting  home,  and  a  wilderness  and  Indian  tribes  to  traverse,  did  not 
find  a  moment's  thought  in  any  one's  bosom.  To  carry  them  back  was 
the  instant  and  indignant  determination;  but  great  difficulties  were  in 
the  way.  The  cost  of  getting  back  three  thousand  men  under  such 
circumstances  must  be  great,  and  here  Jackson's  character  showed  itself 
again. 

"  We  have  all  heard  of  his  responsibilities — his  readiness  to  assume  po 
litical  responsibility,  when  the  public  service  required  it.  He  was  now 
equally  ready  to  take  responsibility  of  another  kind — moneyed  responsi 
bility  !  and  that  beyond  the  whole  extent  of  his  fortune !  He  had  no 
military  chest — not  a  dollar  of  public  money — and  three  thousand  men 
were  not  to  be  conducted  five  hundred  miles  through  a  wilderness  country 
and  Indian  tribes  without  a  great  outlay  of  money.  Wagons  were  wanted, 
and  many  of  them,  for  transport  of  provisions,  baggage  and  the  sick,  so 
numerous  among  new  troops.  He  had  no  money  to  hire  teams ;  he  im 
pressed  :  and  at  the  end  of  the  service  gave  drafts  upon  the  quarter-master 
general  of  the  southern  department  for  the  amount. 

"  The  wagons  were  ten  dollars  a  day,  coming  and  going.  They  were 
numerous.  It  was  a  service  of  two  months ;  the  amount  to  be  incurred 
was  great.  He  incurred  it!  and,  as  will  be  seen,  at  imminent  risk  of  his 
own  ruin.  This  assumption  on  the  General's  part  met  the  first  great  diffi 
culty,  but  there  were  lesser  difficulties,  still  serious,  to  be  surmounted.  The 
troops  had  received  no  pay ;  clothes  and  shoes  were  worn  out ;  men  were 
in  no  condition  for  a  march  so  long  and  so  exposed.  The  officers  had 
received  no  pay — did  not  expect  to  need  money — had  made  no  provision 
for  the  unexpected  contingency  of  large  demands  upon  their  own  pockets 
to  enable  them  to  do  justice  to  their  men.  But  there  was  patriotism  out 
side  of  the  camp  as  well  as  within. 

"  The  merchants  of  Natchez  put  their  stores  at  our  disposition — take 
what  we  needed — pay  when  convenient  at  Nashville.  I  will  name  one 
among  these  patriotic  merchants — name  him  because  he  belongs  to  a  class 
now  struck  at,  and  because  I  do  not  ignore  a  friend  when  he  is  struck. 
Washington  Jackson  was  the  one  I  mean — Irish  by  birth — American  by 
choice,  by  law,  and  feeling  and  conduct.  I  took  some  hundred  pairs  shoes 
from  him  for  my  regiment,  and  other  articles." 

The  very  day  on  which  the  order  arrived,  the  General 
issued  the  requisite  directions  for  the  preparation  of  wagons, 
provisions  and  ammunition.  On  the  next  day,  he  dispatched 
letters,  indignant  and  explanatory,  to  the  Secretary  of  War, 


380  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

to  Governor  Blount,  to  the  President,  and  to  General  Wil 
kinson. 

He  attributed  the  strange  conduct  of  the  government  tc 
every  cause  but  the  right  one — its  own  inexperience,  and  the 
difficulty  of  directing  operations  at  places  so  remote  from  the 
seat  of  government.  Armstrong  averred  that  he  had  dis 
patched  the  obnoxious  order  in  the  confident  expectation  of 
its  reaching  General  Jackson  before  he  had  gone  far  from 
home  ;  as  the  extreme  severity  of  the  winter,  he  thought, 
would  inevitably  detain  the  flotilla  at  the  mouth  of  the  Cum 
berland.  There  is  no  good  reason  noiv  to  doubt  this  explana 
tion  ;  though,  at  the  time,  it  did  not  look  probable.  The 
General  thought  he  saw  the  sly  hand  of  Wilkinson  in  the 
business.  "  You  have  it  still  in  your  power,"  wrote  Wilkin 
son,  "  to  render  a  most  acceptable  service  to  our  government, 
by  encouraging  the  recruiting  service  from  the  patriotic  sol 
diers  you  command  in  an  appropriate  general  order."  Aha  ! 
thought  General  Hotspur  ;  it's  all  a  scheme,  then,  of  this 
insidious  villain  to  swell  his  own  force  with  my  gallant  Ten- 
nesseeans.  But,  by  the  Eternal, 

"I'll  keep  them  all! 

By  Heaven !  he  shall  not  have  a  Scot  of  them. 
No ;  if  a  Scot  would  save  his  soul,  he  shall  not. 
I'll  keep  them,  by  this  hand !" 

And  so  he  did.  When  a  recruiting  officer  was  detected 
hanging  about  the  camp,  the  General  notified  him  that  if  he 
attempted  to  seduce  one  of  his  volunteers  into  the  regular 
army,  he  should  be  drummed  out  of  the  camp  in  the  presence 
of  the  entire  corps. 

At  the  last  moment  came  the  orders  of  the  government 
(which  ought  to  have  accompanied  the  order  to  disband), 
directing  the  force  under  General  Jackson  to  be  paid  off,  and 
allowed  pay  and  rations  for  the  journey  home.  It  was  too 
late.  The  General  was  resolved,  whatever  might  betide,  to 
conduct  the  men  back  to  their  homes,  in  person,  as  an  organ 
ized  body.  "  I  shall  commence  the  line  of  march,"  he  wrote 


1813.]       THE     GENERAL     WINS     HIS     NICKNAME.        381 

to  Wilkinson,  "on  Thursday,  the  25th.  Should  the  con 
tractor  not  feel  himself  justified  in  sending  on  provisions  for 
my  infantry,  or  the  quarter-master  wagons  for  the  transpor 
tation  of  my  sick,  I  shall  dismount  the  cavalry,  carry  them 
on,  and  provide  the  means  for  their  support  out  of  my  private 
funds.  If  that  should  fail,  I  thank  my  God  we  have  plenty 
of  horses  to  feed  my  troops  to  the  Tennessee,  where  I  know 
my  country  will  meet  me  with  ample  supplies.  These  brave 
men,  at  the  call  of  their  country,  voluntarily  rallied  round  its 
insulted  standard.  They  followed  me  to  the  field ;  I  shall 
carefully  march  them  hack  to  their  homes.  It  is  for  the 
agents  of  the  government  to  account  to  the  State  of  Tennes 
see  and  the  whole  world  for  their  singular  and  unusual  con 
duct  to  this  detachment." 

It  was  on  this  homeward  march  that  the  nickname  of 
"Old  Hickory"  was  bestowed  on  the  General.  From  the 
time  of  leaving  Nashville,  General  Jackson  had  constantly 
grown  in  the  confidence  and  affection  of  the  troops.  The  man 
was  in  his  element  at  last,  and  his  great  qualities  began  to 
make  themselves  manifest.  Many  of  the  volunteers  had 
heard  so  much  of  his  violent  and  hasty  temper  that  they  had 
joined  the  corps  with  a  certain  dread  and  hesitation,  fearing 
not  the  enemy,  nor  the  march,  nor  the  diseases  of  the  lower 
country,  so  much  as  the  swift  wrath  of  their  commander. 
Some,  indeed,  refused  to  go  for  that  reason  alone.  How  sur 
prised  were  those  who  entered  the  service  with  such  feelings 
to  find  in  General  Jackson  a  father  as  well  as  a  chief.  Jack 
son  had  the  faculty,  which  all  successful  soldiers  possess,  of 
completely  identifying  himself  with  the  men  he  commanded  ; 
investing  every  soldier,  as  it  were,  with  a  portion  of  his  own 
personality,  and  feeling  a  wrong  done  to  the  least  of  them 
as  done  to  himself.  Soldiers  are  quick  to  perceive  a  trait  of 
this  kind.  They  saw,  indeed,  that  there  was  a  whole  volcano 
of  wrath  in  their  General,  but  they  observed  that,  to  the  men 
of  his  command,  so  long  as  they  did  their  duty,  and  longer, 
he  was  the  most  gentle,  patient,  considerate  and  generous  of 
friends. 

VOL.  i. — 25 


382  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

This  resolve  of  his  to  disobey  his  government  for  their 
sakes,  and  the  manner  in  which  he  executed  that  resolve,  raised 
his  popularity  to  the  highest  point.  When  the  little  army  set 
out  from  Natchez  for  a  march  of  five  hundred  miles  through 
the  wilderness,  there  were  a  hundred  and  fifty  men  on  the 
sick  list,  of  whom  fifty-six  could  not  raise  their  heads  from 
the  pillow.  There  were  but  eleven  wagons  for  the  con 
veyance  of  these.  The  rest  of  the  sick  were  mounted  on 
the  horses  of  the  officers.  The  General  had  three  excellent 
horses,  and  gave  them  all  up  to  the  sick  men,  himself 
trudging  along  on  foot  with  the  brisk  pace  that  was  usual 
with  him.  Day  after  day  he  tramped  gayly  along  the  miry 
forest  roads,  never  tired,  and  always  ready  with  a  cheering 
word  for  others.  They  marched  with  extraordinary  speed, 
averaging  eighteen  miles  a  day,  and  performing  the  whole  jour 
ney  in  less  than  a  month  ;  and  yet  the  sick  men  rapidly 
recovered  under  the  reviving  influences  of  a  homeward 
march.  "  Where  am  I  ?"  asked  one  young  fellow  who  had 
been  lifted  to  his  place  in  a  wagon  when  insensible  and 
apparently  dying.  "On  your  way  home!"  cried  the  Gen 
eral,  merrily  ;  and  the  young  soldier  began  to  improve  from 
that  hour,  and  reached  home  in  good  health. 

The  name  of  "  Old  Hickory"  was  not  an  instantaneous 
inspiration,  but  a  growth.  First  of  all,  the  remark  was  made 
by  some  soldier,  who  was  struck  with  his  commander's  pedes 
trian  powers,  that  the  General  was  "  tough."  Next  it  was 
observed  of  him  that  he  was  as  "  tough  as  hickory."  Then 
he  was  called  Hickory.  Lastly,  the  affectionate  adjective 
"  old"  was  prefixed,  and  the  General  thenceforth  rejoiced  in 
the  completed  nickname,  usually  the  first-won  honor  of  a 
great  commander. 

On  approaching  the  borders  of  the  State,  the  General 
again  offered  his  services  to  the  government  to  aid  in,  or  con- 
duet,  a  new  invasion  of  Canada.  His  force,  he  said,  could 
be  increased,  if  necessary  ;  and  he  had  a  few  standards  wear 
ing  the  American  eagle,  that  he  should  be  happy  to  place 
upon  the  enemy's  ramparts.  But  the  desired  response  came 


1813.]      THE    GENERAL    WINS    HIS    NICKNAME.     383 

not ;  and  so,  on  the  22d  of  May,  the  last  of  his  army  was 
drawn  up  on  the  public  square  of  Nashville  waiting  only  for 
the  word  of  command  to  disperse  to  their  homes. 

A  pleasant  little  ceremonial,  however,  was  to  precede  the 
separation.  "  Previous  to  the  dismissal,"  wrote  the  editor  of 
the  Nashville  Whig,  "  the  detachment  were  presented  with 
a  most  superb  stand  of  colors  by  the  ladies  of  East  Tennes 
see.  They  are  the  richest  needle-work  we  ever  saw.  The 
work  is  on  white  satin  ;  the  colors  are  tastefully  arranged, 
and  show  remarkably  well.  Near  the  top,  in  a  crescent  form, 
appear  eighteen  stars  in  orange  color  ;  next,  two  sprigs  of 
laurel  lying  athwart.  And  then  appear  these  words  :  '  TEN 
NESSEE  VOLUNTEERS — Independence,  in  a  state  of  war,  is  to 
be  maintained  on  the  battle-ground  of  the  Republic.  The 
tented  field  is  the  post  of  honor.  Presented  by  the  ladies  of 
East  Tennessee,  Knoxville,  February  Wth,  1813/  And  un 
derneath  appear  all  the  implements  of  war,  colors,  cannons, 
muskets,  bayonets,  drums,  balls,  pontoons,  swords,  battle- 
axes,  etc.,  etc.,  very  ingeniously  intermingled  in  a  manner 
that  excites  the  utmost  admiration  for  the  taste  and  patriot 
ism  of  the  ladies.  The  wing  of  the  colors  is  beautiful  fancy 
lutestring,  dove  color,  ornamented  with  white  fringe  and 
tassels." 

A  complimentary  letter  from  Mrs.  Blount,  the  wife  of  the 
Governor  of  the  State,  was  read  on  the  occasion  ;  to  which 
the  General  sent  a  becoming  reply,  addressed  to  "  Mrs.  Gov 
ernor  Blount,  Miss  Barbara  Grey  Blount,  and  Miss  Eliza  In 
diana  Blount."  "  While  I  admire,"  said  the  General,  "  the 
elegant  workmanship  of  these  colors,  my  veneration  is  excited 
for  the  patriotic  disposition  that  prompted  the  ladies  to  be 
stow  them  on  the  volunteers  of  West  Tennessee.  Although 
the  patriotic  corps  under  my  command  have  not  had  an  op 
portunity  of  meeting  an  enemy,  yet  they  have  evinced  every 
disposition  to  do  so.  This  distinguished  mark  of  respect  will 
be  long  remembered,  and  this  splendid  present  shall  be  kept 
as  a  memorial  of  the  generosity  and  patriotism  of  the  ladies 
of  East  Tennessee." 


384  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

At  a  later  day,  he  had  an  opportunity  of  making  a  happy 
return  in  kind  to  the  ladies — as  we  shall  see. 

The  troops  were  dismissed,  exulting  in  their  commander, 
and  spreading  wide  the  fame  of  his  gallant  and  graceful  con 
duct.  "  Long  will  their  General  live  in  the  memory  of  the 
volunteers  of  West  Tennessee,"  said  the  Nashville  Whig,  a 
day  or  two  after  the  troops  were  disbanded,  "  for  his  benevo 
lent,  humane,  and  fatherly  treatment  to  his  soldiers  ;  if 
gratitude  and  love  can  reward  him,  General  Jackson  has 
them.  It  affords  us  pleasure  to  say,  that  we  believe  there  is 
not  a  man  belonging  to  the  detachment  but  what  loves  him. 
His  fellow-citizens  at  home  are  not  less  pleased  with  his  con 
duct.  We  fondly  hope  his  merited  worth  will  not  be  over 
looked  by  the  government." 

The  government,  quotha  ?  These  events  were  not  re 
garded  at  Washington  in  the  light  they  were  at  Nashville. 
Far  from  it.  The  "  government"  came  very  near  making  up 
its  mind  to  let  the  General  bear  the  responsibilities  which  he 
had  incurred.  Colonel  Benton  may  continue  his  narrative  : 
"  We  all  returned,"  he  says  ;  "  were  discharged ;  dispersed 
among  our  homes,  and  the  fine  chance  on  which  we  had  so 
much  counted  was  all  gone.  And  now  came  a  blow  upon 
Jackson  himself — the  fruit  of  the  moneyed  responsibility 
which  he  had  assumed.  His  transportation  drafts  were  all 
protested — returned  upon  him  for  payment,  which  was  im 
possible,  and  directions  to  bring  suit.  This  was  the  month 
of  May.  I  was  coming  on  to  Washington  on  my  own  ac 
count,  and  cordially  took  charge  of  Jackson's  case.  Suits 
were  delayed  until  the  result  of  his  application  for  relief  could 
be  heard.  I  arrived  at  this  city  ;  Congress  was  in  session — 
the  extra  session  of  the  spring  and  summer  of  1813.  I  ap 
plied  to  the  members  of  Congress  from  Tennessee  ;  they  could 
do  nothing.  I  applied  to  the  Secretary  of  War  ;  he  did 
nothing. 

"  Weeks  had  passed  away,  and  the  time  for  delay  was  ex 
piring  at  Nashville.  Kuin  seemed  to  be  hovering  over  the 
head  of  Jackson,  and  I  felt  the  necessity  of  some  decisive 


1813.]    THE   GENERAL   WINS   HIS   NICKNAME.          385 

movement.  I  was  young,  then,  and  had  some  material  in 
me — perhaps  some  boldness  ;  and  the  occasion  brought  it  out. 
I  resolved  to  take  a  step,  characterized  in  the  letter  which  I 
wrote  to  the  General  as  l  an  appeal  from  the  justice  to  the 
fears  of  the  administration.'  I  remember  the  words,  though 
I  have  never  seen  the  letter  since.  I  drew  up  a  memoir,  ad 
dressed  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  representing  to  him  that 
these  volunteers  were  drawn  from  the  bosoms  of  almost  every 
substantial  family  in  Tennessee — that  the  whole  State  stood 
by  Jackson  in  bringing  them  home — and  that  the  State 
would  be  lost  to  the  administration  if  he  was  left  to  suffer. 
It  was  upon  this  last  argument  that  I  relied — all  those 
founded  in  justice  having  failed. 

"  It  was  of  a  Saturday  morning,  12th  of  June,  that  I 
carried  this  memoir  to  the  War  Office,  and  delivered  it. 
Monday  morning  I  came  back  early  to  learn  the  result  of  my 
argument.  The  Secretary  was  not  yet  in.  I  spoke  to  the 
chief  clerk  (who  was  afterwards  Adjutant  General  Parker), 
and  inquired  if  the  Secretary  had  left  any  answer  for  me  before 
he  left  the  office  on  Saturday.  He  said  no  ;  but  that  he  had 
put  the  memoir  in  his  side  pocket — the  breast-pocket — and 
carried  it  home  with  him,  saying  he  would  take  it  for  his 
Sunday's  consideration.  That  encouraged  me — gave  a  gleam 
of  hope  and  a  feeling  of  satisfaction.  I  thought  it  a  good 
subject  for  his  Sunday's  meditation.  Presently  he  arrived. 
I  stepped  in  before  anybody  to  his  office. 

"  He  told  me  quickly  and  kindly  that  there  was  much 
reason  in  what  I  had  said,  but  that  there  was  no  way  for  him 
to  do  it ;  that  Congress  would  have  to  give  the  relief.  I 
answered  him  that  I  thought  there  was  a  way  for  him  to  do 
it ;  it  was  to  give  an  order  to  General  Wilkinson,  quarter 
master  general  in  the  southern  department,  to  pay  for  so 
much  transportation  as  General  Jackson's  command  would 
have  been  entitled  to  if  it  had  returned  under  regular  orders. 
Upon  the  instant  he  took  up  a  pen,  wrote  down  the  very 
words  I  had  spoken,  directed  a  clerk  to  put  them  into  form  ; 
and  the  work  was  done.  The  order  went  off  immediately, 


386  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

and  Jackson  was  relieved  from  imminent  impending  ruin,  and 
Tennessee  remained  firm  to  the  administration." 

And  so  ended  this  fruitless  expedition  to  Natchez.  Fruit 
less  it  was  of  immediate  military  results.  It  was  more  pro 
ductive,  however,  of  reputation  to  the  General  in  command 
than  if  it  had  been,  in  any  ordinary  degree,  successful.  It 
left  him  a  private  citizen,  indeed  ;  but,  for  the  time,  the  most 
beloved  and  esteemed  of  private  citizens  in  western  Tennessee. 


CHAPTER     XXXV. 

FEUD  AND  AFFRAY  WITH  THE  BENTONS. 

IT  was  through  an  act  of  good  nature  that  General  Jack 
son  was  drawn  into  this  disgraceful  business. 

William  Carroll  (afterwards  General  Carroll),  who  went 
down  the  river  with  the  expedition,  in  the  capacity  of  brigade 
inspector,  had  but  recently  come  to  Nashville  from  Pitts- 
burg,  where  he  had  been  a  clerk  or  partner  in  a  hardware 
store.  He  was  a  tall,  well-formed  man,  much  given  to  mili 
tary  affairs,  and  thus  attracted  the  notice  of  General  Jackson  ; 
who  advanced  him  so  rapidly  and  paid  him  such  marked 
attentions,  as  to  procure  for  the  young  stranger  a  great  many 
enemies.  Carroll,  moreover,  was  not  a  genuine  son  of  the 
wilderness.  With  all  his  powerful  frame  and  superior  stature, 
there  was  an  expression  of  delicacy  in  his  smooth,  fair  coun 
tenance  that  found  small  favor  in  the  eyes  of  the  rougher 
pioneers.  Perhaps,  too,  in  those  days,  there  was  a  touch  of 
dandyism  in  his  attire  and  demeanor.  Far  different  was  he 
from  the  giant  Coffee,  man  of  the  mighty  arm  and  massive 
fist,  and  thundering  voice,  and  face  of  bronze,  and  heart  of 
oak ;  the  backwoodsman's  beau-ideal  of  a  colonel  of  hunting- 
shirted  dragoons.  Enough.  Captain  William  Carroll  had 
his  enemies  among  the  young  officers  of  General  Jackson's 
division. 


1813.]  FEUD     WITH     THE     BENTONS.  387 

On  the  homeward  march  from  Natchez,  one  wild  young 
fellow  of  the  anti-Carroll  faction  thought  proper  to  consider 
himself  insulted  by  Carroll,  and  on  reaching  Nashville  sent 
him  a  challenge.  Carroll  declined  to  fight,  on  the  ground 
that  the  challenger  was  not  a  gentleman.  The  officer  who 
had  borne  the  hostile  message  then  challenged  Carroll  him 
self,  who  again  refused  to  fight,  and  for  the  same  reason  as 
before.  The  quarrel  spread.  Various  petty  and  ridiculous 
things  occurred,  which  need  not  be  repeated.  At  length,  the 
foes  of  Carroll  succeeded  in  their  object  so  far  as  to  embroil 
the  young  man  with  Mr.  Jesse  Benton,  a  brother  of  Colonel 
Thomas  H.  Benton,  who  was  away  in  Washington,  saving  Gen 
eral  Jackson  from  bankruptcy.  Jesse  Benton,  for  many  years 
a  resident  of  Nashville,  had  a  good  deal  of  his  brother's  fire 
and  fluency,  without  much  of  his  talent  and  discretion.  He 
was  a  well-intentioned,  eccentric,  excitable  man,  prone  to  get 
himself  into  awkward  scrapes,  and  to  get  out  of  them  awk 
wardly.  He  challenged  Carroll.  His  social  standing  was 
such  that  his  challenge  could  not  be  declined,  and  Carroll 
was  compelled  to  prepare  for  a  fight. 

Unable,  it  is  said,  to  procure  a  suitable  second  in  Nash 
ville,  Carroll  rode  out  to  the  Hermitage,  stated  his  perplexity 
to  General  Jackson,  and  asked  him  to  act  as  his  "friend." 
The  General  was  astonished  at  the  proposal. 

"  Why,  Captain  Carroll,"  said  he,  "  I  am  not  the  man 
for  such  an  affair.  I  am  too  old.  The  time  has  been  when 
I  should  have  gone  out  with  pleasure  ;  but,  at  my  time  of 
life,  it  would  be  extremely  injudicious.  You  must  get  a  man 
nearer  your  own  age." 

Carroll  replied  that  if  this  had  been  a  quarrel  of  an  ordi 
nary  nature  he  would  not  have  asked  General  Jackson's 
assistance.  But  it  was  not  an  ordinary  quarrel.  There  was 
a  conspiracy, he  said,  among  certain  young  men,  to  "run  him 
out  of  the  country."  They  wanted  his  commission,  and  were 
jealous  of  his  standing  with  General  Jackson. 

At  the  words,  "  run  me  out  of  the  country,"  the  General's 
manner  changed. 


388  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

"  Well,  Carroll/'  said  he,  "  you  may  make  your  mind 
easy  on  one  point :  they  sha'n't  run  you  out  of  the  country  as 
long  as  Andrew  Jackson  lives  in  it.  I'll  ride  with  you  to 
Nashville,  and  inquire  into  this  "business  myself." 

Upon  inquiry,  General  Jackson  was  convinced  that  Jesse 
Benton' s  fiery  passions  had  been  played  upon  by  the  enemies 
of  Carroll  for  their  own  purposes,  and  that  the  challenge  of 
that  gentleman  was  something  not  in  the  least  degree  called 
for  by  the  "laws  of  honor."  He  personally  remonstrated 
with  Benton,  and,  as  he  thought,  with  good  effect.  But 
others  gained  his  ear  and  confidence,  after  the  General  had 
returned  to  the  tavern,  and  the  result  was,  that  he  persisted 
in  fighting.  Upon  learning  this  determination,  General 
Jackson  declared  his  purpose  to  stand  by  his  young  friend, 
Carroll,  and  to  go  with  him  to  the  field  as  his  second. 

The  incidents  of  the  duel  were  so  ridiculous  that  they  are 
still  a  standing  joke  in  Tennessee.  The  men  were  placed 
back  to  back,  at  the  usual  distance  apart.  At  the  word,  they 
were  to  wheel  and  fire.  The  General,  on  placing  his  man, 
said,  pointing  to  Benton, 

"  You  needn't  fear  him,  Carroll ;  he'd  never  hit  you,  if 
you  were  as  broad  as  a  barn-door." 

Benton  was  evidently  a  little  agitated.  Indeed,  as  he 
afterwards  confessed  to  his  physician,  he  had  not  the  duelist's 
nerve,  i.  e.,  he  could  not  quite  conceal  a  feeling,  common  to 
all  duelists  when  they  are  placed,  that  a  man  who  stands 
eight  or  ten  paces  from  the  muzzle  of  a  loaded  pistol  which 
is  about  to  go  off,  is  in  a  false  position. 

FIRE  ! 

The  men  wheeled  and  raised  their  pistols.  Benton  fired 
first,  and  then  stooped  or  crouched,  to  receive  the  fire  of  his 
antagonist.  The  act  of  stooping  caused  a  portion  of  his 
frame,  that  was  always  prominent,  to  be  more  prominent 
still.  Carroll  fired.  His  ball  inflicted  a  long,  raking  wound 
on  the  part  exposed,  which  would  have  been  safe  but  for  the 
unlucky  stoop.  Jackson  ran  up  to  his  principal,  and  asked 
him  if  he  was  hit.  "  No,"  said  he,  "  I  believe  not."  At 


1813.]  FEUD     WITH     THE     BEN  TONS.  389 

that  moment,  Carroll  observed  blood  on  his  left  hand,  and 
found  that  he  had  been  shot  in  the  thumb. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  he  added,  "  he's  hit  my  thumb." 

"I  told  you  he  would  not  hurt  you,"  said  Jackson ;  "and 
he  wouldn't  have  hit  you  at  all  if  you'd  kept  your  hand  at 
your  side,  where  it  ought  to  have  been." 

Bent  on  was  carried  home,  and  his  wound  was  dressed. 
He  was  confined  to  the  house  for  some  weeks. 

Meanwhile,  Colonel  Thomas  H.  Benton  had  completed 
his  business  at  Washington,  had  sent  on  to  Tennessee  the 
news  of  his  great  success,  and  was  about  to  return  home, 
when  he  heard  of  this  duel,  and  heard,  too,  that  General 
Jackson  had  gone  to  the  field,  not  as  his  brother's  friend,  but 
as  the  second  of  his  brother's  antagonist  !  General  Jackson  ! 
whom  he  had  so  signally  served.  Soon  came  wild  letters 
from  Jesse,  so  narrating  the  affair  as  to  place  the  conduct 
of  General  Jackson  in  the  worst  possible  light.  Officious 
friends  of  the  Bentons,  foes  to  Jackson  and  to  Carroll,  wrote 
to  Colonel  Benton  in  a  similar  strain,  adding  fuel  to  the  fire 
of  his  indignation.  Benton  wrote  to  Jackson,  denouncing 
his  conduct  in  offensive  terms.  Jackson  replied,  in  effect, 
that  before  addressing  him  in  that  manner  Colonel  Benton 
should  have  inquired  of  him  what  his  conduct  really  had 
been,  not  listened  to  the  tales  of  designing  and  interested  par 
ties.  Benton  wrote  still  more  angrily.  He  said  that  General 
Jackson  had  conducted  the  duel  in  a  "savage,  unequal,  unfair 
and  base  manner."  On  his  way  home  through  Tennessee, 
especially  at  Knoxville,  he  inveighed  bitterly  and  loudly,  in 
public  places,  against  General  Jackson,  using  language  such 
as  angry  men  did  use  in  the  western  country  fifty  years  ago. 
Jackson  was  informed  of  this.  Phrases  applied  by  Benton  to 
himself  were  reported  to  him  by  some  of  those  parasites  and 
sycophants  who  made  it  their  business  to  minister  to  his  pas 
sions  and  prejudices  ;  a  class  of  people  from  whose  malign, 
misleading  influence  men  of  intense  personality  are  seldom 
wholly  free. 

Jackson  had  liked  Thomas  Benton,  and  remembered  with 


390  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

gratitude  his  parents,  particularly  his  mother,  who  had  been 
gracious  and  good  to  him  when  he  was  a  "  raw  lad"  in  North 
Carolina.  They  had  had  a  slight  difference  at  Natchez,  these 
two  hot-headed  men  ;  Bent  on  having  been  of  the  opinion  that 
Wilkinson,  a  brigadier  of  the  regular  army  and  a  major  gen 
eral  by  brevet,  was  the  military  superior  of  Jackson,  who  was 
only  a  major  general  of  militia.  But  this  was  a  temporary 
and  unimportant  matter,  which  had  not  been  remembered 
against  him.  Jackson  was,  therefore,  sincerely  unwilling  to 
break  with  him,  and  manifested  a  degree  of  forbearance 
which  it  is  a  pity  he  could  not  have  maintained  to  the  end. 
He  took  fire  at  last,  threw  old  friendship  to  the  winds,  and 
swore  by  the  Eternal  that  he  would  horsewhip  Tom  Benton 
the  first  time  he  met  him. 

The  vow  had  gone  forth  ;  a  sacred  vow  at  that  day  in 
Tennessee.  To  all  Nashville  it  was  known  that  General 
Jackson  had  promised  to  whip  Thomas  Benton  "  on  sight," 
to  use  Colonel  Coffee's  commercial  term.  Colonel  Benton  was 
duly  informed  of  it.  Jesse  Benton,  then  nearly  recovered 
from  his  wound,  was  perfectly  aware  of  it.  The  thing  was  to 
be  done.  The  only  question  was,  When  ? 

Back  from  Washington  came  Colonel  Benton,  bursting 
with  wrath  and  defiance,  yet  resolved  to  preserve  the  peace, 
and  neither  to  seek  nor  fly  the  threatened  attack.  One  meas 
ure  of  precaution,  however,  he  did  adopt.  There  were  then 
two  taverns  on  the  public  square  of  Nashville,  both  situated 
near  the  same  angle,  their  front  doors  being  not  more  than  a 
hundred  yards  apart.  One  was  the  old  Nashville  Inn  (burnt 
three  years  ago),  at  which  General  Jackson  was  accustomed 
to  put  up  for  more  than  forty  years.  There,  too,  the  Ben- 
tons,  Colonel  Coffee  and  all  of  the  General's  peculiar  friends 
were  wont  to  take  lodgings  whenever  they  visited  the  town, 
and  to  hold  pleasant  converse  over  a  glass  of  wine,  and  to 
play  billiards  together — a  game  pursued  with  fanatical  devo 
tion  in  the  early  days  of  Nashville.  By  the  side  of  this  old 
inn  was  a  piece  of  open  ground,  where  cocks  were  accustomed 
to  display  their  prowess,  and  tear  one  another  to  pieces  for 
the  entertainment  of  some  of  the  citizens. 


1813.]  FEUD     WITH     THE     BEN  TONS.  391 

The  other  tavern,  the  City  Hotel,  flourishes  to  this  day. 
It  is  one  of  those  curious,  overgrown  caravansaries  of  the 
olden  time,  nowhere  to  be  seen  now  except  in  the  ancient 
streets  of  London  and  the  old  towns  of  the  southern  States  ; 
a  huge  tavern,  with  vast  piazzas,  and  interior  galleries  run 
ning  round  three  sides  of  a  quadrangle,  story  above  story,  and 
quaint  little  rooms  with  large  fire-places  and  high  mantels 
opening  out  upon  them  ;  with  long  dark  passages,  and  stairs 
at  unexpected  places  ;  and  carved  wainscoating,  and  gray- 
haired  servants,  who  have  grown  old  with  the  old  house,  and 
can  remember  General  Jackson  as  long  as  they  can  remem 
ber  their  own  fathers. 

On  reaching  Nashville,  Colonel  Benton  and  his  brother 
Jesse  did  not  go  to  their  accustomed  inn,  but  stopped  at  the 
City  Hotel,  to  avoid  General  Jackson,  unless  he  chose  to  go 
out  of  his  way  to  seek  them.  This  was  on  the  3d  of  Sep 
tember.  In  the  evening  of  the  same  day  it  came  to  pass  that 
General  Jackson  and  Colonel  Coffee  rode  into  town,  and  put 
up  their  horses,  as  usual,  at  the  Nashville  Inn.  Whether  the 
coming  of  these  portentous  gentlemen  was  in  consequence  of 
the  General's  having  received,  a  few  hours  before,  an  intima 
tion  of  the  arrival  of  Colonel  Benton,  is  one  of  those  ques 
tions  which  must  be  left  to  that  already  overburdened  indi 
vidual — the  future  historian.  Perhaps  it  was  true,  as  Colonel 
Coffee  grinningly  remarked,  that  they  had  come  to  get  their 
letters  from  the  post  office.  They  were  there — that  is  the 
main  point — and  concluded  to  stop  all  night.  Captain  Car 
roll  called  in  the  course  of  the  evening,  and  told  the  General 
that  an  affair  of  a  most  delicate  and  tender  nature  compelled 
him  to  leave  Nashville  at  dawn  of  day. 

"  Go,  by  all  means,"  said  the  General.  "  I  want  no  man 
to  fight  my  battles." 

The  next  morning,  about  nine,  Colonel  Coffee  proposed 
to  General  Jackson  that  they  should  stroll  over  to  the  post 
office.  They  started.  The  General  carried  with  him,  as  he 
generally  did,  his  riding  whip.  He  also  wore  a  small  sword, 
as  all  gentlemen  once  did,  and  as  official  persons  were  accus- 


392 


LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON. 


[1813. 


tomed  to  do  in  Tennessee,  as  late  as  the  war  of  1812.  The 
post  office  was  then  situated  in  the  public  square,  on  the 
corner  of  a  little  alley,  just  beyond  the  City  Hotel.  There 
were,  therefore,  two  ways  of  getting  to  it  from  the  Nashville 
Inn.  One  way  was  to  go  straight  to  it,  across  the  angle  of 
the  square ;  the  other,  to  keep  the  sidewalk  and  go  round. 


LJ 


LI 


Nashville  Inn. 


Our  two  friends  took  the  short  cut,  walking  leisurely  along. 
When  they  were  about  midway  between  their  inn  and  the 
post  office,  Colonel  Coffee,  glancing  towards  the  City  Hotel, 
observed  Colonel  Benton  standing  in  the  doorway  thereof, 
drawn  up  to  his  full  height,  and  looking  daggers  at  them. 

"  Do  you  see  that  fellow  ?"  said  Coffee  to  Jackson,  in  a 
low  tone. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  replied  Jackson  without  turning  his  head,  "  I 
have  my  eye  on  him." 

They  continued  their  walk  to  the  post  office,  got  their 
letters,  and  set  out  on  their  return.  This  time,  however, 


1813.]  FEUD     WITH     THE     BENTON  8.  393 

they  did  not  take  the  short  way  across  the  square,  but  kept 
down  the  sidewalk,  which  led  past  the  front  door  at  which 
Colonel  Benton  was  posted.  As  they  drew  near,  they  ob 
served  that  Jesse  Benton  was  standing  before  the  hotel  near 
his  brother.  On  coming  up  to  where  Colonel  Benton  stood, 
General  Jackson  suddenly  turned  toward  him,  with  his  whip 
in  his  right  hand,  and,  stepping  up  to  him,  said, 

"  Now,  you  d — d  rascal,  I  am  going  to  punish  you.  De 
fend  yourself." 

Benton  put  his  hand  into  his  breast  pocket  and  seemed  to 
be  fumbling  for  his  pistol.  As  quick  as  lightning,  Jackson 
drew  a  pistol  from  a  pocket  behind  him,  and  presented  it  full 
at  his  antagonist,  who  recoiled  a  pace  or  two.  Jackson  ad 
vanced  upon  him.  Benton  continued  to  step  slowly  back 
ward,  Jackson  close  upon  him,  with  a  pistol  at  his  heart, 
until  they  had  reached  the  back  door  of  the  hotel,  and  were 
in  the  act  of  turning  down  the  back  piazza.  At  that  mo 
ment,  just  as  Jackson  was  beginning  to  turn,  Jesse  Benton 
entered  the  passage  behind  the  belligerents,  and,  seeing  his 
brother's  danger,  raised  his  pistol  and  fired  at  Jackson.  The 
pistol  was  loaded  with  two  balls  and  a  large  slug.  The  slug 
took  effect  in  Jackson's  left  shoulder,  shattering  it  horribly. 
One  of  the  balls  struck  the  thick  part  of  his  left  arm,  and 
buried  itself  near  the  bone.  The  other  ball  splintered  the 
board  partition  at  his  side.  The  shock  of  the  wounds  was 
such,  that  Jackson  fell  across  the  entry,  and  remained  pros 
trate,  bleeding  profusely. 

Coffee  had  remained  just  outside,  meanwhile.  Hearing 
the  report  of  the  pistol,  he  sprang  into  the  entry,  and  seeing 
his  chief  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  Colonel  Benton,  concluded 
that  ifc  was  his  ball  that  had  laid  him  low.  He  rushed 
upon  Benton,  drew  his  pistol,  fired,  and  missed.  Then  he 
"  clubbed"  his  pistol,  and  was  about  to  strike,  when  Colonel 
Benton,  in  stepping  backward,  came  to  some  stairs  of  which 
he  was  not  aware,  and  fell  headlong  to  the  bottom.  Cof 
fee,  thinking  him  hors  du  combat,  hastened  to  the  assistance 
of  his  wounded  General. 


394  LIFE    OF     ANDREW    JACKSON.  [1813. 

The  report  of  Jesse  Benton's  pistol  brought  another  actor 
on  the  bloody  scene — Stokely  Hays,  a  nephew  of  Mrs.  Jack 
son,  and  a  devoted  friend  to  the  General.  He  was  standing 
near  the  Nashville  Inn,  when  he  heard  the  pistol.  He  knew 
well  what  was  going  forward,  and  ran  with  all  his  speed  to 
the  spot.  He,  too,  saw  the  General  lying  on  the  floor  welter 
ing  in  his  blood.  But,  unlike  Coffee,  he  perceived  who  it  was 
that  had  fired  the  deadly  charge.  Hays  was  a  man  of  a 
giant's  size,  and  a  giant's  strength.  He  snatched  from  his 
sword-cane  its  long  and  glittering  blade,  and  made  a  lunge 
at  Jesse  with  such  frantic  force,  that  it  would  have  pinned 
him  to  the  wall  had  it  taken  effect.  Luckily  the  point 
struck  a  button,  and  the  slender  weapon  was  broken  to  pieces. 
He  then  drew  a  dirk,  threw  himself  in  a  paroxysm  of  fury 
upon  Jesse,  and  got  him  down  upon  the  floor.  Holding  him 
down  with  one  hand,  he  raised  the  dirk  to  plunge  it  into  his 
breast.  The  prostrate  man  seized  the  coat-cuff  of  the  de 
scending  arm  and  diverted  the  blow,  so  that  the  weapon  only 
pierced  the  fleshy  part  of  his  left  arm.  Hays  strove  madly 
to  disengage  his  arm,  and  in  doing  so  gave  poor  Jesse  several 
flesh  wounds.  At  length,  with  a  mighty  wrench,  he  tore  his 
cuff  from  Jesse  Benton's  convulsive  grasp,  lifted  the  dirk 
high  in  the  air,  and  was  about  to  bury  it  in  the  heart  of  his 
antagonist,  when  a  by-stander  caught  the  uplifted  hand  and 
prevented  the  further  shedding  of  blood.  Other  by-standers 
then  interfered  ;  the  maddened  Hays,  the  wrathful  Coffee, 
the  irate  Benton  were  held  back  from  continuing  the  combat, 
and  quiet  was  restored. 

Faint  from  the  loss  of  blood,  Jackson  was  conveyed  to  a 
room  in  the  Nashville  Inn,  his  wound  still  bleeding  fearfully. 
Before  the  bleeding  could  be  stopped,  two  mattresses,  as  Mrs. 
Jackson  used  to  say,  were  soaked  through,  and  the  General 
was  reduced  almost  to  the  last  gasp.  All  the  doctors  in 
Nashville  were  soon  in  attendance,  all  but  one  of  whom,  and 
he  a  young  man,  recommended  the  amputation  of  the  shat 
tered  arm.  "  I'll  keep  my  arm,"  said  the  wounded  man,  and 
he  kept  it.  No  .attempt  was  made  to  extract  the  ball,  and  it 


1813.]  FEUD     WITH     THE     BEN  TONS.  395 

remained  in  the  arm  for  twenty  years.  The  ghastly  wounds 
in  the  shoulder  were  dressed,  in  the  simple  manner  of  the 
Indians  and  pioneers,  with  poultices  of  slippery  elm,  and 
other  products  of  the  woods.  The  patient  was  utterly  pros 
trated  with  the  loss  of  blood.  It  was  two  or  three  weeks 
before  he  could  leave  his  bed. 

After  the  retirement  of  the  General's  friends,  the  Bentons 
remained  for  an  hour  or  more  upon  the  scene  of  the  affray, 
denouncing  Jackson  as  an  assassin,  and  a  defeated  assassin. 
They  defied  him  to  come  forth  and  renew  the  strife.  Colonel 
Benton  made  a  parade  of  breaking  Jackson's  small-sword, 
which  had  been  dropped  in  the  struggle,  and  left  on  the  floor 
of  the  hotel.  He  broke  it  in  the  public  square,  and  accom 
panied  the  act  with  words  defiant  and  contemptuous,  uttered 
in  the  loudest  tones  of  his  thundering  voice.  The  General's 
friends,  all  anxiously  engaged  around  the  couch  of  their 
bleeding  chief,  disregarded  these  demonstrations  at  the  time, 
and  the  brothers  retired,  victorious  and  exulting. 

On  the  days  following,  however,  Colonel  Benton  did  not 
find  the  General's  partisans  so  acquiescent.  "  I  am  literally 
in  hell  here,"  he  wrote,  shortly  after  the  fight ;  "  the  meanest 
wretches  under  heaven  to  contend  with — liars,  affidavit- 
makers,  and  shameless  cowards.  All  the  puppies  of  Jackson 
are  at  work  on  me  ;  but  they  will  be  astonished  at  what  will 
happen  ;  for  it  is  not  them,  but  their  master,  whom  I  will 
hold  accountable.  The  scalping-knife  of  Tecumpsy  is  mercy 
compared  with  the  affidavits  of  these  villains.  I  am  in  the 
middle  of  hell,  and  see  no  alternative  but  to  kill  or  be  killed  ; 
for  I  will  not  crouch  to  Jackson ;  and  the  fact  that  I  and 
my  brother  defeated  him  and  his  tribe,  and  broke  his  small 
sword  in  the  public  square,  will  for  ever  rankle  in  his  bosom, 
and  make  him  thirst  after  vengeance.  My  life  is  in  danger  ; 
nothing  but  a  decisive  duel  can  save  me,  or  even  give  me  a 
chance  for  my  own  existence  ;  for  it  is  a  settled  plan  to  turn 
out  puppy  after  puppy  to  bully  me,  and  when  I  have  got 
into  a  scrape,  to  have  me  killed  somehow  in  the  scuffie,  and 
afterwards  the  affidavit-makers  will  prove  it  was  honorably 


396  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

done.  I  shall  never  be  forgiven  having  given  my  opinion  in 
favor  of  Wilkinson's  authority  last  winter ;  and  this  is  the 
root  of  the  hell  that  is  now  turned  loose  against  me." 

Shortly  after  the  affray,  Colonel  Benton  went  to  his  home 
in  Franklin,  Tennessee,  beyond  the  reach  of  "  Jackson's  pup 
pies."  He  was  appointed  lieutenant  colonel  in  the  regular 
army  ;  left  Tennessee  ;  resigned  his  commission  at  the  close 
of  the  war  ;  emigrated  to  Missouri ;  and  never  again  met 
General  Jackson  till  1823,  when  both  were  members  of  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States.  Jesse  Benton,  I  may  add, 
never  forgave  General  Jackson  ;  nor  could  he  ever  forgive  his 
brother  for  forgiving  the  General.  Publications  against  Jack 
son  by  the  angry  Jesse,  dated  as  late  as  1828,  may  be  seen 
in  old  collections  of  political  trash. 

Perhaps,  in  fairness,  I  should  append  to  this  narrative 
Colonel  Benton' s  own  statement  of  the  affray,  as  published 
in  the  Franklin  newspaper,  a  day  or  two  after  the  Colonel 
returned  home.  The  version  of  the  affair  given  in  this  chap 
ter  is  General  Coffee's.  I  received  it  from  an  old  friend  of 
all  the  parties,  who  heard  General  Coffee  tell  the  story  with 
great  fullness  and  care,  as  though  he  were  giving  evidence 
before  a  court.  Coffee,  of  course,  would  naturally  place  the 
conduct  of  General  Jackson  in  the  most  favorable  light. 
Benton,  hot  from  the  fray  when  he  wrote  his  statement,  could 
not  be  expected  to  know  the  whole  or  the  exact  truth.  He 
seems,  for  example,  to  have  left  Nashville  with  the  impres 
sion  that  Jackson  was  not  hurt  at  all,  but  had  feigned  a 
wound  in  order  to  escape  one.  And,  indeed,  it  may  be  re 
marked  here,  as  well  as  anywhere,  that  neither  the  eyes  nor 
the  memory  of  one  of  these  fiery  spirits  can  be  trusted. 
Long  ago,  in  the  early  days  of  these  inquiries,  I  ceased  to 
believe  any  thing  they  may  have  uttered,  when  their  pride  or 
their  passions  were  interested  ;  unless  their  story  was  sup 
ported  by  other  evidence  or  by  strong  probability.  It  is  the 
nature  of  such  men  to  forget  what  they  wish  had  never  oc 
curred;  to  remember  vividly  the  occurrences  which  flatter 
their  ruling  passion  ;  and  unconsciously  to  magnify  their  own 


1813.]  FEUD     WITH     THE     BENTONS.  397 

part  iii  the  events  of  the  past.  Telling  the  truth  is  supposed 
to  be  one  of  the  easy  virtues.  What  an  error  !  It  is  an  ac 
complishment  that  has  to  be  toiled  for  as  heroes  toil  for  vic 
tory,  as  artists  toil  for  excellence,  as  good  men  toil  for  the 
good  of  human  kind.  When  Shakspeare  said,  that  to  be  an 
honest  man  is  to  be  one  man  picked  out  of  ten  thousand,  he 
uttered  an  arithmetical  as  well  as  a  moral  truth. 

But  here  is  Colonel  Benton's  statement ;  which  is,  per 
haps,  as  true  as  Coffee's  ;  and  is  certainly  as  true  as  Colonel 
Benton  could  make  it  at  the  time  of  writing,  six  days  after 
the  fight  :— 

"FRANKLIN,  Tennessee,  September  10,  1813. 

"A  difference  which  had  been  for  some  months  brewing  between 
General  Jackson  and  myself,  produced  on  Saturday,  the  4th  instant,  in  the 
town  of  Nashville,  the  most  outrageous  affray  ever  witnessed  in  a  civilized 
country.  In  communicating  the  affair  to  my  friends  and  fellow-citizens,  I 
limit  myself  to  the  statement  of  a  few  leading  facts,  the  truth  of  which  I 
am  ready  to  establish  by  judicial  proofs. 

"  1.  That  myself  and  my  brother,  Jesse  Benton,  arriving  in  Nashville 
on  the  morning  of  the  affray,  and  knowing  of  General  Jackson's  threats, 
went  and  took  lodgings  in  a  different  house  from  the  one  in  which  he  staid, 
on  purpose  to  avoid  him. 

"  2.  That  the  General  and  some  of  his  friends  came  to  the  house  where 
we  had  put  up,  and  commenced  the  attack  by  leveling  a  pistol  at  me,  when 
I  had  no  weapon  drawn,  and  advancing  upon  me  at  a  quick  pace,  without 
giving  me  time  to  draw  one. 

"  3.  That  seeing  this,  my  brother  fired  upon  General  Jackson,  when 
he  had  got  within  eight  or  ten  feet  of  me. 

"  4.  That  four  other  pistols  were  fired  in  quick  succession ;  one  by 
General  Jackson  at  me ;  two  by  me  at  the  General ;  and  one  by  Colonel 
Coffee  at  me.  In  the  course  of  this  firing,  General  Jackson  was  brought 
to  the  ground,  but  received  no  hurt, 

"  5.  That  daggers  were  then  drawn.  Colonel  Coffee  and  Mr.  Alex 
ander  Donaldson  made  at  me,  and  gave  me  five  slight  wounds.  Captain 
Hammond  and  Mr.  Stokely  Hays  engaged  my  brother,  who,  still  suffering 
from  a  severe  wound  he  had  lately  received  in  a  duel,  was  not  able  to  resist 
two  men.  They  got  him  down  ;  and  while  Captain  Hammond  beat  him 
on  the  head  to  make  him  lie  still,  Mr.  Hays  attempted  to  stab  him,  and 
wounded  him  in  both  arms  as  he  lay  on  his  back,  parrying  the  thrusts 
with  his  naked  hands.  From  this  situation  a  generous-hearted  citizen  of 
VOL.  i.— 26 


398  LIFE     OF      ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

Nashville,  Mr.  Summer,  relieved  him.  Before  he  came  to  the  ground,  my 
brother  clapped  a  pistol  to  the  breast  of  Mr.  Hays,  to  blow  him  through, 
but  it  missed  fire. 

"  6.  My  own  and  my  brother's  pistols  carried  two  balls  each  ;  for  it 
was  our  intention,  if  driven  to  arms,  to  have  no  child's  play.  The  pistols 
fired  at  me  were  so  near  that  the  blaze  of  the  muzzle  of  one  of  them  burnt 
the  sleeve  of  my  coat,  and  the  other  aimed  at  my  head  at  a  little  more  than 
arm's  length  from  it. 

"  7.  Captain  Carroll  was  to  have  taken  part  in  the  affray,  but  was  ab 
sent  by  the  permission  of  General  Jackson,  as  he  had  proved  by  the  Gen 
eral's  certificate,  a  certificate  which  reflects  I  know  not  whether  less  honor 
upon  the  General  or  upon  the  Captain. 

"  8.  That  this  attack  was  made  upon  me  in  the  house  where  the 
judge  of  the  district,  Mr.  Searcy,  had  his  lodgings!  Nor  has  the  civil 
authority  yet  taken  cognizance  of  this  horrible  outrage. 

"  These  facts  are  sufficient  to  fix  the  public  opinion.  For  my  own  part, 
I  think  it  scandalous  that  such  things  should  take  place  at  any  time  ;  but 
particularly  so  at  the  present  moment,  when  the  public  service  requires  the 
aid  of  all  its  citizens.  As  for  the  name  of  courage,  God  forbid  that  I  should 
ever  attempt  to  gain  it  by  becoming  a  bully.  Those  who  know  me,  know 
full  well  that  I  would  give  a  thousand  times  more  for  the  reputation  of 
Croghan  in  defending  his  post,  than  I  would  for  the  reputation  of  all  the 
duelists  and  gladiators  that  ever  appeared  upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 

"  THOMAS  HART  BENTON." 

The  day  on  which  the  above  was  written,  September  10th, 
1813,  Commodore  Perry  gained  his  victory  on  Lake  Erie. 
The  news,  so  electric,  so  revivifying,  reached  Nashville  at  a 
moment  when  other  tidings  of  a  nature  far  different  absorbed 
the  minds  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  frontier.  When  these 
boyish  men  fought  their  silly  fight,  on  the  4th  of  September, 
the  courier  was  already  on  his  way  from  the  South  with  a 
piece  of  news  that  would  have  stayed  their  bloody  hands  had 
it  come  in  time.  If  they  could  but  have  known  what  was 
transpiring  on  the  Mobile  river  !  Jackson  was  deeply  to 
blame  for  that  shameful  affray.  Judge,  from  following  chap 
ters,  whether  ever  man  was  so  exquisitely  punished  for  a  fault 

as  he  was  for  that. 

.    • 


THE    SOLDIER, 


CHAPTER     XXXVI. 

TECUMSEH. 

THE  Indian  is  a  creature  who  does  not  improve  upon 
acquaintance.  Living  near  a  tribe  dispels  so  much  of  the 
romance  which  novelists  and  poets  have  thrown  around  the 
dusky  race,  as  to  induce  considerable  incredulity  with  regard 
to  the  tales  they  have  told  of  Indian  valor  and  generosity. 
As  he  now  appears  upon  our  western  border,  the  Indian  is  a 
filthy,  idle,  cruel,  lying  coward,  wholly  a  cumberer  of  the 
ground,  incapable  of  any  of  the  white  man's  virtues,  while 
exaggerating  all  his  vices  ;  respecting  whom  the  thrifty  pio 
neer  finds  it  hard  to  cherish  any  desire  but  this — to  extermi 
nate  him.  Behold  the  Indian  upon  his  travels  !  With 
sulky  gravity,  carrying  only  his  pipe  and  rifle,  he  stalks  across 
the  prairie,  his  wife  staggering  along  behind  the  solemn  brute, 
with  a  huge  pack  upon  her  shoulder,  and  her  child  upon  the 
pack.  The  modern  traveler  may  be  pardoned  for  being  slow 
to  believe  much  good  of  a  people  who,  from  time  immemo 
rial,  have  chosen  this  mode  of  getting  over  the  ground.* 

*  Since  writing  the  above,  I  find  the  following  in  one  of  Mr.  Horace  Greeley's 
letters  from  the  far  West,  published  in  the  New  York  Tribune,  June,  1859  : — 

"The  Indians  are  children.  Their  arts,  wars,  treaties,  alliances,  habitations, 
crafts,  properties,  commerce,  comforts,  all  belong  to  the  very  lowest  and  rudest 
ages  of  human  existence.  Some  few  of  the  chiefs  have  a  narrow  and  short 
sighted  shrewdness,  and,  very  rarely  in  their  history,  a  really  great  man,  like 
Pontiac  or  Tecumseh,  has  arisen  among  them ;  but  this  does  not  shake  the  gen 
eral  truth  that  they  are  utterly  incompetent  to  cope  in  any  way  with  the  European 
or  Caucasian  race.  Any  band  of  schoolboys  from  ten  to  fifteen  years  of  age, 
are  quite  as  capable  of  ruling  their  appetites,  devising  and  upholding  a  public 
policy,  constituting  and  conducting  a  state  or  community  as  an  average  Indian 
tribe.  .  .  . 

"  I  have  learned  to  appreciate  better  than  hitherto,  and  to  make  more  allow 
ance  for,  the  dislike,  aversion,  contempt,  wherewith  Indians  are  usually  regarded 


402  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

But  every  race  produces  superior  individuals,  whose  lives 
constitute  its  heroic  ages.  Investigation  establishes  that 
Tecumseh,  though  not  the  faultless  ideal  of  a  patriot  prince 
that  romantic  story  represents  him,  was  all  of  a  patriot,  a 
hero,  a  MAN,  that  an  Indian  can  be.  If  to  conceive  a  grand, 
difficult  and  unselfish  project ;  to  labor  for  many  years  with 
enthusiasm  and  prudence  in  attempting  its  execution  ;  to 
enlist  in  it  by  the  magnetism  of  personal  influence  great 
multitudes  of  various  tribes  ;  to  contend  for  it  with  unfalter 
ing  valor  longer  than  there  was  hope  of  success  ;  and  to  die 
fighting  for  it  to  the  last,  falling  forward  toward  the  enemy 
covered  with  wounds,  is  to  give  proof  of  an  heroic  cast  of 
character,  then  is  the  Shawanoe  chief,  Tecumseh,  in  whose 
veins  flowed  no  blood  that  was  not  Indian,  entitled  to  rank 
among  Heroes. 

The  power  of  the  Shawanoes  was  broken  before  Tecumseh 
was  born.  From  the  region  of  the  Tallapoosa,  in  Alabama, 
his  parents  migrated,  about  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  to 
the  valley  of  the  Miamis,  near  their  tribe's  ancient  seat ;  and 
there  Tecumseh  was  born.  He  gave  signal  evidence  of  pos 
sessing  a  superior  nature  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  when,  for  the 
first  time,  he  saw  a  prisoner  burnt.  In  silent  horror  he 
looked  upon  the  scene.  When  it  was  over,  he  expressed  his 
detestation  of  the  act  in  such  moving  terms  that  the  party 
resolved  never  to  burn  another  prisoner,  and,  it  is  believed,  no 

by  their  white  neighbors,  and  have  been  since  the  days  of  the  Puritans.  It  needs 
but  little  familiarity  with  the  actual,  palpable  Aborigines  to  convince  any  one  that 
the  poetic  Indian — the  Indian  of  Cooper  and  Longfellow — is  only  visible  to  the 
poet's  eye.  To  the  prosaic  observer,  the  average  Indian  of  the  woods  and  prai 
ries  is  a  being  who  does  little  credit  to  human  nature — a  slave  of  appetite  and 
sloth,  never  emancipated  from  the  tyranny  of  one  animal  passion  save  by  the  more 
ravenous  demands  of  another.  As  I  passed  over  those  magnificent  bottoms  of 
the  Kansas  which  form  the  reservations  of  the  Delawares,  Potawatamies,  etc., 
constituting  the  very  best  corn  lands  on  earth,  and  saw  their  owners  sitting 
round  the  doors  of  their  lodges  in  the  height  of  the  planting  season,  and  in  as 
good,  bright  planting  weather  as  sun  and  soil  ever  made,  I  could  not  help  saying, 
'  These  people  must  die  out — there  is  no  help  for  them.  God  has  given  this 
earth  to  those  who  will  subdue  and  cultivate  it,  and  it  is  vain  to  struggle  agaiast 
His  righteous  decree.' " 


1813.]  TECUMSEH.  403 

prisoners  taken  by  Indians  under  Tecumseh's  command  were 
ever  tortured.  Indeed,  the  Shawanoes  must  have  been  of 
kindlier  blood  than  other  northern  Indians.  It  was  among 
them  that  Count  Zinzendorf,  the  Mora  vian  missionary,  labored, 
in  1742,  with  some  success  after  his  singular  escape  from  as 
sassination.  The  Count,  so  the  story  runs,  was  sitting,  one 
evening,  in  his  rude  wigwam  upon  a  bundle  of  dry  weeds, 
which  had  been  gathered  for  his  bed,  engaged  in  writing  by 
the  light  of  a  small  fire.  A  rattlesnake,  warmed  to  life  by 
the  fire,  was  crawling  unperceived  over  one  of  the  old  man's 
legs,  when  the  assassins  stealthily  lifted  the  blanket  that 
served  for  a  door,  and  looked  in.  Struck  with  the  majestic 
and  venerable  appearance  of  the  Count  as  he  sat  absorbed  in 
his  writing,  amazed  that  he  should  be  unharmed  by  the  rep 
tile,  they  forbore  the  intended  attack.  For  some  moments, 
it  is  said,  they  stood  watching  the  aged  missionary,  the  silence 
of  the  night  broken  only  by  the  distant  murmur  of  rapids. 
Fear  gathered  about  their  savage  hearts  ;  they  glided  from 
the  spot,  fled  into  the  forest,  and  were  soon  eager  receivers  of 
the  Moravian  doctrine.  Add  to  this  that  Logan,  whose  ora 
tory  Jefferson  so  highly  extolled,  was  a  Shawanoe. 

Tecumseh's  great  scheme  of  uniting  all  the  western  tribes, 
from  Florida  to  the  northern  lakes,  in  one  confederation 
against  the  whites,  with  the  design  of  recovering  the  Indians' 
ancient  heritage,  was  not  a  British  project.  It  had  nothing 
to  do,  in  its  conception,  with  the  war  of  1812.  It  was  con 
ceived,  carried  on,  and,  in  effect,  frustrated  before  the  war  of 
1812  was  considered  probable.  Unlike  Logan,  Tecumseh 
was  never  a  friend  to  the  Americans.  Too  young  to  take 
part  in  the  revolutionary  contest,  he  had  won  distinction  in 
the  long  Indian  wars  which  gave  such  anxiety  to  General 
Washington  during  the  second  term  of  his  presidency.  After 
the  peace,  he  lived  for  many  years  an  Indian  among  Indians, 
surpassing  all  his  tribe  in  the  arts  and  feats  which  Indians 
honor ;  a  natural  chief,  magnificent  in  aspect  and  propor 
tions,  equally  distinguished  as  orator,  hunter  and  ball  player. 
Of  his  skill  in  hunting  it  is  narrated  that,  challenged  to  a 


404  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

contest  by  the  best  hunters  of  his  tribe,  he  returned,  at  the 
end  of  three  days,  with  thirty  deer  skins,  while  none  of  his 
competitors  brought  in  more  than  twelve. 

He  spent  two  years  of  his  early  manhood  on  a  sporting 
visit  to  his  parents'  old  friends,  the  Creeks  of  Alabama, 
among  whom  he  formed  friendships  which  proved  of  impor 
tance  to  him  in  after  years. 

It  was  the  sale  of  the  favorite  hunting-grounds  on  the 
river  Wabash,  soon  after  Mr.  Jefferson  came  into  power,  that 
gave  Tecumseh  such  deep  offense,  and  led  to  the  conception 
of  his  great  design.*  The  difficulties  in  treating  with  In 
dians  for  the  purchase  of  their  lands  are,  first,  to  ascertain 
what  tribe  has  a  right  to  sell  them  ;  and,  secondly,  to  know 
what  individuals  of  a  tribe  are  authorized  to  act  for  the  rest. 
Unhappily,  the  white  man,  always  eager  to  "  extinguish  the 
Indian  titles/'  as  Mr.  Jefferson  politely  phrased  it,  is  not  apt 
to  linger  long  over  these  doubtful  points  ;  but  hastens  to 
conclude  his  purchase,  and  then  stands  ready  to  defend  his 
parchment  right  by  the  rifle.  Hence  have  arisen  most  of  our 
bloody  Indian  wars.  It  was  left  for  the  large-minded  Te 
cumseh  to  originate  the  grand  doctrine  that  no  single  tribe 
could  rightfully  sell  any  portion  of  the  lands  which,  as  he 
claimed,  belonged  to  the  red  men  as  a  common  possession. 
"  The  Great  Spirit,"  said  he  to  General  Harrison,  "gave  this 
great  island  to  his  red  children  ;  he  placed  the  whites  on  the 
other  side  of  the  big  water  ;  they  were  not  contented  with 
their  own,  but  came  to  take  ours  from  us.  They  have  driven 
us  from  the  sea  to  the  lakes  ;  we  can  go  no  further.  They 
have  taken  upon  them  to  say  this  tract  belongs  to  the  Miamis, 
this  to  the  Dela wares,  and  so  on  ;  but  the  Great  Spirit  in 
tended  it  as  the  common  property  of  us  all.  Our  father  tells 
us,  that  we  have  no  business  on  the  Wabash,  the  land  be 
longs  to  other  tribes  ;  but  the  Great  Spirit  ordered  us  to 
come  here,  and  here  we  will  stay." 

General  Harrison  could  not,  Tecumseh  would  not  re- 

*  See  Life  of  Tecumseh,  by  Benjamin  Drake,  for  most  of  these  particulars. 


1813.]  TECUMSEH.  405 

code.  The  utmost  the  General  could  do  was  to  refer  the  dis 
pute  to  the  President.  "  Well/'  said  Tecurnseh,  "  as  the 
great  chief  is  to  determine  the  matter,  I  hope  the  Great  Spirit 
will  put  sense  enough  into  his  head  to  induce  him  to  give  up 
this  land  :  it  is  true,  he  is  so  far  off  he  will  not  be  injured  by 
the  war  ;  he  may  sit  still  in  his  town  and  drink  his  wine, 
whilst  you  and  I  will  have  to  fight  it  out."  These  were  pro 
phetic  words. 

For  four  years  Tecumseh  was  engaged  in  preparing  the 
tribes  for  a  general  war.  He  acquired  an  astonishing  ascend 
ency  over  the  savage  mind.  A  silent  man  in  the  ordinary 
circumstances  of  life,  as  the  greatest  men  always  are,  he  could 
employ  more  than  the  eloquence  of  Logan  when  descanting 
upon  the  Indian's  wrongs  and  the  white  man's  encroach 
ments.  General  Harrison,  who  was  long  his  patient  and  for 
bearing  adviser,  and  then  his  conqueror,  speaks  of  him  as 
"  one  of  those  uncommon  geniuses  which  spring  up  occasion 
ally  to  produce  revolutions,  and  overturn  the  established  or 
der  of  things.  If  it  were  not  for  the  vicinity  of  the  United 
States,  he  would,  perhaps,  be  the  founder  of  an  empire  that 
would  rival  in  glory  Mexico  or  Peru.  No  difficulties  deter 
him.  For  four  years  he  has  been  in  constant  motion.  You 
see  him  to-day  on  the  Wabash,  and  in  a  short  time  hear  of 
him  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie  or  Michigan,  or  on  the  banks 
of  the  Mississippi  ;  and  wherever  he  goes  he  makes  an  im 
pression  favorable  to  his  purposes."* 

This  Moses  of  the  Indians  had  his  Aaron — that  brother 
of  Tecumseh  who  figures  so  conspicuously  in  western  annals 
as  the  Prophet.  This  man  was  a  born  liar — one  of  those 
beings,  of  whom  every  race  produces  examples,  who  from 
childhood  exhibit  a  love  of  falsehood  for  its  own  sake  ;  weav 
ing  elaborate  fictions  without  any  apparent  object.  But, 
what  is  remarkable  in  this  prophet,  as  in  others  of  his  craft, 
he  preached,  upon  the  whole,  a  better  morality  than  the  In 
dians  had  known  before.  The  substance  of  his  message  was, 

*  Montgomery's  Life  of  General  Harrison. 


406  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

that  Indians  should  be  Indians  ;  good  Indians,  but  nothing 
but  Indians.  They  should  return  wholly  to  the  ways  of  their 
fathers,  discarding,  above  all,  the  white  man's  whisky  ;  also, 
his  dress,  customs,  implements,  even  to  his  flint  and  steel. 
Indian  women  should  no  more  marry  white  men.  Indian 
husbands  should  no  more  beat  their  wives,  nor  ill  treat  their 
children.  These  maxims  he  enforced  by  various  ingenious 
tales.  He  said,  for  example,  that  he  had  formerly  been  him 
self  a  great  drunkard  ;  but  on  visiting,  as  prophets  may  do, 
the  abode  of  the  devil,  he  observed  that  those  who  had  died 
drunkards  were  all  there  with  flames  of  fire  issuing  from  their 
mouths  ;  and  that,  alarmed  at  the  sight,  he  had  reformed, 
and  now  called  on  all  Indians  to  follow  his  example.  To  a 
surprising  extent,  the  Indians  obeyed  his  precepts.  In  con 
nection  with  their  reformation,  however,  arose  a  revival  of 
zeal  for  the  punishment  of  witchcraft,  and  we  read  of  their 
roasting  one  poor  old  woman  four  days  to  extract  from  her 
her  diabolical  secret. 

It  is  probable  that  whatever  was  good  and  useful  in  the 
Prophet's  teaching  was  due  to  the  influence  of  Tecumseh, 
while  the  lies  and  miracles,  the  ceremonies  and  incantations, 
were  the  Prophet's  own  work.  But  this  conjunction  of  the 
Patriot  and  Prince  of  Darkness  proved,  as  it  has  often  done 
before,  the  ruin  of  the  good  cause. 

In  the  spring  of  1811,  Tecumseh,  leaving  his  affairs  in  the 
hands  of  the  Prophet,  as  Moses  did  in  those  of  Aaron  when 
he  ascended  the  Mount,  went  to  the  South,  preaching  his 
crusade.  Far  and  long  he  traveled,  sowing  the  seeds  of 
future  wars.  In  Florida,  among  the  persistent  Semirioles  ; 
in  Georgia  and  Alabama,  among  the  powerful  Creeks  and 
Cherokees  ;  in  Missouri,  among  the  tribes  of  the  Des  Moins, 
he  held  the  war  council,  delivered  his  impassioned  a  TALK," 
and  strode  away.  He  returned  in  November,  1811,  only  to 
learn  that  his  brother,  forsaking  his  own  prudent  counsels, 
puffed  up  with  self-importance,  had  rashly  attacked  General 
Harrison's  army  with  nine  hundred  warriors,  wrought  to 
frenzy  by  the  Prophet's  eloquence  ;  and  had  met  with  the 


1813.]  TECUMSEH.  407 

disastrous  defeat  of  Tippecanoe.  The  prestige  of  the 
Prophet,  who  had  promised  certain  victory,  was  gone  for 
ever  among  the  northern  Indians.  Tecumseh's  chosen  war 
riors,  the  nucleus  of  the  great  army  he  had  hoped  to  lead, 
were  killed  or  dispersed.  The  rage  of  the  great  chief  availed 
nothing. 

The  battle  of  Tippecanoe  would  have  ended,  or  long 
deferred,  Tecumseh's  grand  design,  but  for  the  opportune 
declaration  of  war  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  on  the  eighteenth  of  June,  1812. 

Tecumseh's  resolution  to  join  the  British  was  instantly 
taken.  Some  neighboring  Indians  inviting  him  to  join  a 
council  of  tribes  which  had  determined  to  remain  neutral,  he 
replied  :  "  No  :  I  have  taken  sides  with  the  King,  my  father, 
and  I  will  suffer  my  banes  to  bleach  upon  this  shore,  before 
I  will  recross  that  stream  to  join  in  any  council  of  neutrality." 
In  a  few  days  he  was  in  the  field.  The  first  blood  shed  in 
the  war  was  shed  through  him,  and  the  first  advantage  gained 
by  the  British  was  due  to  his  assistance.  At  Detroit  he  wit 
nessed,  with  mingled  exultation  and  contempt,  the  surrender 
of  Hull.  Taken  into  high  favor  by  the  British  generals^  who 
testify  in  strong  language  to  his  quick  intelligence,  his  mili 
tary  eye,  his  great  presence  and  perfect  courage,  his  scheme 
of  uniting  the  tribes  was  adopted  as  a. part  of  the  system  of 
carrying  on  the  war.  And  such  was  Tecumseh's  zeal  and 
activity,  and  such  his  knowledge  of  Indian  nature,  that  the 
news  of  our  disasters  in  Canada  was  whispered  among  the 
Creeks  of  Alabama  before  they  had  been  heard  of  among  the 
white  settlers  !  The  fall  of  1812  again  found  Tecurnseh, 
accompanied  by  the  Prophet  and  a  retinue  of  thirty  warriors, 
haranguing  the  Creeks  in  the  midnight  council ;  and,  this 
time,  with  prodigious  effect.  Now,  he  could  point  to  the 
successes  of  the  British  in  the  North ;  now  he  could  give. cer 
tain  promises  of  assistance  from  the  English  and  Spaniards 
in  Florida  ;  now  he  spoke  with  the  authority  of  a  British 
agent  and  officer. 

How  important  to  the  British  was  the  cooperation  of  the 


408  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

Indians  is  attested  by  Mr.  C.  J.  Ingersoll,  whose  residence  at 
Washington,  as  a  member  of  Congress,  during  the  war, 
opened  to  him  valuable  sources  of  information.  "  Dread  of 
the  scalping-knife  and  tomahawk,"  says  Mr.  Ingersoll,  in  his 
discursive  but  interesting  history  of  the  war,  "  did  more  to 
save  Canada  for  England  than  the  equivocal  loyalty  of  her 
Canadian  subjects,  the  skill,  valor,  and  admirable  tactics  of 
her  best  officers  and  soldiers.  To  dread  of  the  savages,  alone, 
Hull  gave  way  when  he  first  faltered.  That  dread  took  him 
back  from  Sandwich  to  Detroit  ;  overcame  him  to  surrender 
Detroit,  much  more  than  hostile  attack  by  civilized  men  in 
arms.  They  do  but  capture,  kill,  and  wound  enemies.  But 
Indians  torture,  mutilate,  murder,  put  to  death  with  aggrava 
tions  far  worse  than  mere  homicide.  Dread  of  the  Indians 
struck  the  militia  with  panic,  when  they  dared  not  pass  over 
to  rescue  their  countrymen  at  Queenstown.  Dread  of  them 
induced  Colonel  Boersler  to  surrender  to  an  inferior  force 
which  he  might  have  resisted.  Dread  of  the  Indians  multi 
plied  their  numbers  and  power  so  fearfully  to  American  recol 
lections  that  Indian  barbarities  were  by  far  the  most  for 
midable  of  England's  means  of  hostility  against  the  United 
States/' 

Indians  are  excited  to  the  point  of  declaring  war  by  a  pro 
cess  similar  to  that  by  which  the  war  spirit  is  kindled  in  a 
civilized  nation.  First,  a  war  party  is  formed,  which  in 
creases  until  it  embraces  a  majority,  or,  at  least,  a  formidable 
minority  of  the  tribe.  Then  the  "  conservative"  opponents 
of  the  war,  who  resist  all  argument,  entreaty,  and  intrigue, 
become  objects  of  obloquy,  resentment,  and,  lastly,  persecu 
tion.  Thus  a  civil  war  is  fomented,  in  which,  if  the  war 
party  triumphs,,  war  becomes  the  policy  of  the  tribe,  the  war 
dance  begins,  and  the  warriors  go  forth  to  the  ambush.  So 
long  had  the  Creeks  been  at  peace  with  the  settlers,  and 
such  progress  had  many  of  them  made  in  civilization,  and  so 
many  intelligent  chiefs  among  them' were  peculiarly  attached 
to  the  whites,  that  this  process  was  a  long  and  doubtful 
one. 


1813.]  TECUMSEH.  409 

It  was  going  on  when  Tecumseh  arrived.  Colonel  Haw 
kins,  the  United  States  Indian  Agent,  who  had  for  many 
years  governed  the  Creeks  and  assisted  them  to  acquire  the 
arts  of  civilization,  was  holding  a  great  council  of  the  tribe 
when  Tecumseh  came  into  the  country.  Of  this  council,  and 
Tecumseh's  appearance  and  speech  therein,  Mr.  Pickett,  in 
his  History  of  Alabama,  gives  us  an  interesting  account : — 

"  The  ancient  capital  of  the  Creeks  never  looked  so  gay  and 
populous.  An  autumnal  sun  glittered  upon  the  yellow  faces 
of  five  thousand  natives,  besides  whites,  and  negroes  who  min 
gled  with  them.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  agent's  first  day's 
address,  Tecumseh  at  the  head  of  his  Ohio  party  marched 
into  the  square.  They  were  entirely  naked  except  their  flaps 
and  ornaments.  Their  faces  were  painted  black,  and  their 
heads  adorned  with  eagle  plumes,  while  buffalo  tails  dragged 
from  behind,  suspended  by  bands  which  went  around  their 
waists.  Buffalo  tails  were  also  attached  to  their  arms,  and 
made  to  stand  out  by  means  of  bands.  Their  appearance  was 
hideous,  and  their  bearing  pompous  and  ceremonious.  They 
marched  round  and  round  in  the  square  ;  then,  approaching 
the  chiefs,  they  cordially  shook  them  with  the  whole  length 
of  the  arm,  and  exchanged  tobacco,  a  common  ceremony  with 
the  Indians,  denoting  friendship.  Captain  Isaacs,  chief  of 
Coosawda,  was  the  only  one  who  refused  to  exchange  to 
bacco.  His  head,  adorned  with  its  usual  costume — a  pair  of 
buffalo  horns — was  shaken  in  contempt  of  Tecumseh,  who, 
he  said,  was  a  bad  man,  and  no  greater  than  he  was. 

"  Every  day,  Tecumseh  appeared  in  the  square  to  deliver 
his  i  TALK/  and  all  ever  were  anxious  to  hear  it ;  but,  late 
in  the  evening,  he  would  rise  and  say,  l  The  sun  has  gone 
too  far  to-day — I  will  make  my  talk  to-morrow/  At  length, 
Hawkins  terminated  his  business,  and  departed  for  the 
agency  upon  the  Flint.  That  night,  a  grand  council  was 
held  in  the  great  Round-house.  Tecumseh,  presenting  his 
graceful  and  majestic  form  above  the  heads  of  hundreds, 
made  known  his  mission  in  a  long  speech,  full  of  fire  and  ven 
geance.  He  exhorted  them  to  return  to  their  primitive  cus- 


410  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

toms,  to  throw  aside  the  plow  and  loom,  and  to  abandon 
an  agricultural  life,  which  was  unbecoming  Indian  warriors. 
He  told  them  that  after  the  whites  had  possessed  the  greater 
part  of  their  country,  turned  its  beautiful  forests  into  large 
fields,  and  stained  their  rivers  with  the  washings  of  the  soil, 
they  would  then  subject  them  to  African  servitude.  He  ex 
horted  them  to  assimilate  in  no  way  with  the  grasping, 
unprincipled  race,  to  use  none  of  their  arms,  and  wear  none 
of  their  clothes,  but  dress  in  the  skins  of  beasts  which  the 
Great  Spirit  had  given  his  red  children  for  food  and  raiment, 
and  to  use  the  war-club,  the  scalping-knife,  and  the  bow. 
He  concluded  by  announcing  that  the  British,  their  former 
friends,  had  sent  him  from  the  Big  Lakes  to  procure  their 
services  in  expelling  the  Americans  from  all  Indian  soil ;  that 
the  King  of  England  was  ready  handsomely  to  reward  all  who 
would  fight  for  his  cause. 

"  A  prophet,  who  composed  one  of  the  party  of  Tecum- 
seh,  next  spoke.  He  said  that  he  frequently  communed  with 
the  Great  Spirit,  who  had  sent  Tecumseh  to  their  country 
upon  this  mission,  the  character  of  which  that  great  chief 
had  described.  He  declared  that  those  who  would  join  the 
war  party  should  be  shielded  from  all  harm — none  would  be 
killed  in  battle  ;  that  the  Great  Spirit  would  surround  them 
with  quagmires,  which  would  swallow  up  the  Americans  as 
they  approached  ;  that  they  would  finally  expel  every  Geor 
gian  from  the  soil  as  far  as  Savannah  ;  that  they  would  see 
the  arms  of  Tecumseh  stretched  out  in  the  heavens  at  a  cer 
tain  time,  and  that  they  would  know  when  to  begin  the  war. 

"  A  short  time  before  daylight  the  council  adjourned,  and 
more  than  half  the  audience  had  already  resolved  to  go  to 
war  against  the  Americans." 

To  his  public  addresses  from  town  to  town,  Tecumseh 
added  private  persuasion.  He  established  prophets  in  vari 
ous  places  to  do  the  requisite  howling  and  dancing,  and  to 
perform  miracles.  His  utmost  exertions  were  employed  in 
gaining  over  the  great  chiefs. 

Among  his  first  disciples,  and  quite  his  greatest,  was 


1813.]          THE     MASSACRE     AT     FORT     MIMS.  411 

Weathersford,  a  half-breed,  a  man  of  kindred  spirit  to  him 
self,  possessing  much  of  his  own  grandeur  of  idea  ;  handsome, 
sagacious,  eloquent  and  brave. 

Northward  Tecumseh  soon  returned,  leaving  the  memory 
of  his  burning  words  and  artful  arguments  to  work  in  the 
minds  of  the  southern  Indians.  His  injunctions  to  secrecy 
were  so  well  observed,  that  for  six  months  after  his  depart 
ure,*  during  which  the  war  question  was  intensely  agitating 
tribes  numbering,  perhaps,  thirty  thousand  persons,  and  seven 
thousand  fighting  men,  the  settlers  slept  in  peace  and  tilled 
their  fields  without  fear.  As  late  as  midsummer,  1813,  the 
authorities  were  still  in  doubt  whether  anything  serious  was 
meditated  by  the  Creeks.  A  few  weeks  later,  while  Tecum 
seh  lay  dead  on  the  battle-field  of  the  Thames,  his  superb 
body  flayed  by  miscreants  who  could  not  have  stood  before 
his  living  frown,  his  mission  to  the  South  was  producing  its 
effects  in  wide-spread  terror  and  hideous  carnage — had 
already  produced  the  event  which  called  Andrew  Jackson 
and  the  Tennessee  volunteers  to  the  field  again. 


CHAPTER    XXXVII. 

THE     MASSACRE     AT     FORT     MIMS. 

AUGUST  30th,  1813,  was  the  date  of  this  most  woeful  and 
most  terrible  event.  The  place  was  a  fort,  or  stockade-of- 
refuge,  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Tensaw,  in  the  southern  part  of 
what  is  now  the  State  of  Alabama. 

One  Samuel  Mims,  an  old  and  wealthy  inhabitant  of  the 
Indian  country,  had  enclosed  with  upright  logs  an  acre  of 
land,  in  the  middle  of  which  stood  his  house,  a  spacious  one- 
story  building,  with  sheds  adjoining.  The  enclosure,  pierced 
with  five  hundred  port-holes,  three  and  a  half  feet  from  the 
ground,  was  entered  by  two  heavy  rude  gates,  one  on  the  east- 


412  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

ern  and  one  on  the  western  side.  In  a  corner,  on  a  slight  ele 
vation,  a  block  house  was  begun,  but  never  finished.  When 
the  country  became  thoroughly  alarmed,  the  inhabitants  along 
the  Alabama  river,  few  in  number  and  without  means  of  de 
fense,  had  left  their  crops  standing  in  the  fields  and  their  houses 
open  to  the  plunderer,  and  had  rushed  to  the  block  houses  and 
stockades,  of  which  there  were  twenty  in  a  line  of  seventy 
miles.  The  neighbors  of  Mr.  Minis  resorted  to  his  enclosure, 
each  family  hastening  to  construct  within  it  a  rough  cabin  for 
its  own  accommodation. 

As  soon  as  the  fort — for  fort  it  was  called — was  sufficiently 
prepared  for  their  reception,  Governor  Claiborne,  of  Orleans, 
dispatched  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  volunteers  to  assist 
in  its  defense,  under  the  command  of  Major  Daniel  Beasley. 
Already,  from  the  neighborhood,  seventy  militiamen  had  as 
sembled  at  the  fort,  besides  a  mob  of  friendly  Indians,  and 
one  hundred  and  six  negro  slaves.  Upon  taking  the  command, 
Major  Beasley,  to  accommodate  the  multitude  which  thronged 
to  the  fort,  had  enlarged  it  by  making  a  new  line  of  picketing 
sixty  feet  beyond  the  eastern  end,  but  left  the  old  line  of  stock 
ades  standing,  thus  forming  two  enclosures. 

On  the  morning  of  the  fatal  day,  though  Major  Beasley 
had  spared  some  of  his  armed  men  for  the  defense  of  neigh 
boring  stations,  Fort  Mims  contained  no  less  than  five  hun 
dred  and  fifty-three  souls,  a  mass  of  human  beings  crowded 
together  in  a  flat,  swampy  region,  under  the  broiling  sun  of 
an  Alabama  August.  Of  these,  more  than  one  hundred  were 
white  women  and  children. 

Many  days  had  passed — long,  hot,  tedious  days — and  no 
Indians  were  seen.  The  first  terror  abated.  The  higher  offi 
cers,  it  seems,  had  scarcely  believed  at  all  in  the  hostile  inten 
tions  of  the  Creeks,  and  were  inclined  to  make  light  of  the 
general  consternation.  At  least,  they  were  entirely  confident 
in  their  ability  to  defend  the  fort  against  any  force  that  the 
Indians  could  bring  against  it.  The  motley  inmates  gave 
themselves  up  to  fun  and  frolic.  A  rumor  would  occasionally 
come  in  with  alarming  news  of  Indian  movements,  and,  for  a 


1813.]          THE      MASSACRE      AT      FORT     MI  MS.  413 

few  hours,  the  old  caution  was  resumed,  and  the  men  would 
languidly  work  on  the  defenses.  But  still  the  hourly  scouts 
sent  out  by  the  commander  could  discover  no  traces  of  an  en 
emy,  and  the  hot  days  and  nights  still  wore  away  without 
alarm. 

August  29th,  two  slaves,  who  had  been  sent  out  to  mind 
some  cattle  that  grazed  a  few  miles  from  the  fort,  came  rush 
ing  breathless  through  the  gate,  reporting  that  they  had  seen 
twenty-four  painted  warriors.  A  general  alarm  ensued,  and 
the  garrison  flew  to  their  stations.  A  party  of  horse,  guided 
by  the  negroes,  galloped  to  the  spot,  but  could  neither  find 
Indians,  nor  discover  any  of  the  usual  traces  of  their  pres 
ence.  Upon  their  return,  one  of  the  negroes  was  tied  up  and 
severely  flogged  for  alarming  the  garrison  by  what  Major  Beas- 
ley  supposed  to  be  a  sheer  fabrication.  The  other  negro  would 
also  have  been  punished  but  for  the  interference  of  his  master, 
who  believed  his  tale  ;  at  which  interference  the  major  was  so 
much  displeased  that  he  ordered  the  gentleman,  with  his  large 
family,  to  leave  the  fort  on  the  following  morning.  Never  did 
such  a  fatal  infatuation  possess  the  mind  of  a  man  entrusted 
with  so  many  human  lives. 

The  30th  of  August  arrived.  At  ten  in  the  morning  the 
commandant  was  sitting  in  his  room  writing  to  Governor 
Claiborne  a  letter  (which  still  exists)  to  the  effect  that  he 
need  not  concern  himself  in  the  least  respecting  the  safety  of 
Fort  Mims,  as  there  was  no  doubt  of  its  impregnability 
against  any  Indian  force  whatever.  Both  gates  were  wide 
open.  Women  were  preparing  dinner.  Children  were  play 
ing  about  the  cabins.  Soldiers  were  sauntering,  sleeping, 
playing  cards.  The  owner  of  the  frightened  negro  had  now 
consented  to  his  punishment  rather  than  leave  the  fort,  and 
the  poor  fellow  was  tied  up  expecting  soon  to  feel  the  lash. 
His  companion,  who  had  been  whipped  the  day  before,  was 
out  tending  cattle  at  the  same  place,  where  again  he  saw,  or 
thought  he  saw,  painted  warriors  ;  and  fearing  to  be  whipped 
again  if  he  reported  the  news,  fled  to  the  next  station  some 
miles  distant. 
VOL.  i. — 27 


414  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

All  this  calm  and  quiet  morning,  from  before  daylight 
until  noon,  there  lay  in  a  ravine  only  four  hundred  yards 
from  the  fort's  eastern  gate,  one  thousand  Creek  warriors, 
armed  to  the  teeth,  and  hideous  with  war  paint  and  feathers. 
Weathersford,  the  crafty  and  ahle  chieftain,  had  led  them  from 
Pensacola,  where  the  British  had  supplied  them  with  weapons 
and  ammunition,  to  this  well-chosen  spot,  where  they  crouched 
and  waited  through  the  long  slow  morning,  with  the  devilish 
patience  with  which  savages  and  tigers  can  wait  for  their 
prey.  So  dead  was  the  silence  in  the  ravine,  that  the  birds 
fluttered  and  sang  as  usual  in  the  branches  above  the  dusky 
breathing  mass.  Five  prophets  with  blackened  faces,  with 
medicine  bags  and  magic  rods,  lay  among  them,  ready  at  the 
signal  to  begin  their  incantations  and  stimulate  the  fury  of 
the  warriors. 

At  noon  a  drum  in  the  fort  beat  to  dinner  ;  officers  and 
men,  their  arms  laid  aside,  all  unsuspicious  of  danger,  we/c 
gathering  to  the  meal  in  various  parts  of  the  stockade.  That 
dinner  drum  was  the  signal  which  Weathersford  had  cun 
ningly  chosen  for  the  attack.  At  the  first  tap,  the  silent 
ravine  was  alive  with  Indians,  who  leaped  up  and  ran  in  a 
tumultuous  mass  toward  the  eastern  gate  of  the  devoted  fort. 
The  head  of  the  throng  had  reached  a  field,  one  hundred  and 
fifty  yards  across,  that  lay  before  the  gate,  had  raised  a  hid 
eous  whoop,  and  were  streaming  across  the  field,  before  a  sen 
tinel  saw  or  heard  them.  Then  arose  the  terrible  cry,  Indians  ! 
Indians  !  and  there  was  a  rush  of  women  and  children  to  the 
houses,  and  of  men  to  the  gates  and  port-holes.  Major 
Beasley  was  one  of  the  first  at  the  gate,  and  made  a  frantic 
attempt  to  close  it ;  but  sand  had  washed  into  the  gateway, 
and  ere  the  obstruction  could  be  removed,  the  savages  poured 
in,  felled  the  commander  to  the  earth  with  clubs  and  toma 
hawks,  and  ran  over  his  bleeding  body  into  the  fort.  He 
crawled  behind  the  gate,  and  inxa  few  minutes  died,  exhort 
ing  his  men  with  his  last  breath  to  make  a  resolute  resistance. 
At  once  the  whole  of  that  part  of  the  fort  which  had  been 
lately  added,  and  which  was  separated  from  the  main  en- 


1813.]          THE     MASSACRE     AT     FORT     MIMS.  415 

closure  by  the  old  line  of  pickets,  was  filled  with  Indians, 
hooting,  howling,  dancing  among  the  dead  bodies  of  many  of 
the  best  officers  and  men  of  the  little  garrison.  The  poor 
negro,  tied  up  to  be  whipped  for  doing  all  he  could  to  prevent 
this  catastrophe,  was  killed  as  he  stood  waiting  for  his  pun 
ishment. 

The  situation  was  at  once  simple  and  horrible.  Two  en 
closures  adjoining,  with  a  line  of  port-holes  through  the  log 
partition — one  enclosure  full  of  men,  women,  children,  friendly 
Indians  and  negroes — the  other  filled  with  howling  savages, 
mad  with  the  lust  of  slaughter  ;  both  compartments  contain 
ing  sheds,  cabins,  and  other  places  for  refuge  and  assault — 
the  large  open  field  without  the  eastern  gate  covered  with 
what  seemed  a  countless  swarm  of  naked  fiends  hurrying  to 
ihe  fort — all  avenues  of  escape  closed  by  Weathersford's  fore 
sight  and  vigilance — no  white  station  within  three  miles,  and 
no  adequate  help  within  a  day's  march — the  commandant 
and  some  of  his  ablest  officers  trampled  under  the  feet  of  the 
savage  foe.  Such  was  the  posture  of  affairs  at  Fort  Mims  a 
few  minutes  after  noon  on  this  dreadful  day. 

The  garrison,  partly  recovering  their  first  panic,  formed 
along  the  line  of  port-holes  and  fired  some  effective  volleys, 
killing  with  the  first  discharge  the  five  prophets  who  were 
dancing,  grimacing,  and  howling  among  the  assailants  in  the 
smaller  enclosure.  These  men  had  given  out  that  they  were 
invulnerable.  American  bullets  were  to  split  upon  their  sa 
cred  persons  and  pass  off  harmless.  Their  fall  so  abated  the 
ardor  of  the  savages  that  their  fire  slackened,  and  some  began 
to  retreat  from  the  fort.  But  new  crowds  kept  coming  up, 
and  the  attack  was  soon  renewed  in  all  its  first  fury. 

The  garrison,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  behaved  as  men 
should  do  in  circumstances  so  terrible  and  desperate.  One 
Captain  Bailey  took  the  command  after  the  death  of  Major 
Beasley,  and  infused  the  fire  of  his  own  indomitable  spirit 
into  the  hearts  of  the  whole  company  ;  adding  an  example 
of  cool  valor  to  encouraging  words.  The  garrison  maintained 
a  ceaseless  and  destructive  fire  through  the  port-holes  and 


416  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813 

from  the  houses.  It  happened,  more  than  once,  that  at  a 
simultaneous  discharge  through  a  port-hole,  both  the  Indian 
without  and  the  white  man  within  were  killed.  Even  the 
boys  and  some  of  the  women  assisted  in  the  defense  ;  and 
few  of  the  women  gave  themselves  up  to  terror  while  there 
remained  any  hope  of  preserving  the  fort.  Some  of  the  old 
men  broke  holes  in  the  roof  of  the  large  house  and  did  great 
execution  upon  the  savages  outside  of  the  stockade.  The 
noise  was  terrific.  All  the  Indians  who  could  not  get  at  the 
port-holes  to  fight  seem  to  have  passed  the  hours  of  this  hor 
rible  day  in  dancing  round  the  fort,  screaming,  hooting,  and 
taunting  the  inmates  with  their  coming  fate. 

Amid  scenes  like  these  three  hours  passed,  and  still  the 
larger  part  of  the  fort  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  garrison, 
though  many  a  gallant  soldier  had  fallen,  and  the  rooms  of 
the  large  house  were  filled  with  wounded  men  and  minister 
ing  women.  The  heroic  Bailey  still  spoke  cheerily.  He  said 
that  Indians  never  fought  long  when  they  were  bravely  met ; 
they  would  certainly  abandon  the  assault  if  the  garrison  con 
tinued  to  resist.  He  tried  to  induce  a  small  party  to  make 
a  sortie  ;  fight  their  way  to  the  next  station,  and  bring  a 
force  to  attack  the  enemy  in  the  rear.  Failing  in  this,  he 
said  he  would  go  himself,  and  began  to  climb  the  picketing, 
but  was  pulled  back  by  his  friends  who  saw  the  madness  of 
the  attempt. 

About  three  o'clock  the  Indians  seemed  to  tire  of  the 
long  contest.  The  fire  slackened  ;  the  bowlings  subsided  ; 
the  savages  began  to  carry  off  the  plunder  from  the  cabins 
in  the  lesser  enclosure  ;  and  hope  revived  in  many  a  despair 
ing  heart.  But  Weathersford,  at  this  hour,  rode  up  on  a 
large  black  horse,  and  meeting  a  throng  of  the  retreating 
plunderers,  upbraided  them  in  an  animated  speech,  and  in 
duced  them  to  return  with  him  to  the  fort  and  complete  its 
destruction. 

And  now  FIRE  was  added  to  the  horrors  of  the  scene. 
By  burning  arrows  and  other  expedients,  the  house  of  Mr. 
Mims  was  set  on  fire,  and  soon  the  whole  structure,  with  its 


1813.]         THE     MASSACRE     AT     FORT     MIMS.  417 

extensive  out-buildings  and  sheds,  was  wrapped  in  flames  ; 
while  the  shrieks  of  the  women  and  children  were  heard,  for 
the  first  time,  above  the  dreadful  din  and  whoop  of  the  bat 
tle.  One  after  another,  the  smaller  buildings  caught,  until 
the  whole  enclosure  was  a  roaring  sea  of  flame,  except  one 
poor  corner,  where  some  extra  picketing  formed  a  last  refuge 
to  the  surviving  victims.  Into  this  enclosure  hurried  a  crowd 
of  women,  children,  negroes,  old  men,  wounded  soldiers, 
trampling  one  another  to  death — all  in  the  last  agonies  of 
mortal  terror.  The  savages  were  soon  upon  them,  and  the 
work  of  slaughter — fierce,  unrelenting  slaughter — began. 
Children  were  seized  by  the  feet  and  their  brains  dashed 
out  against  the  pickets.  Women  were  cut  to  pieces.  Men 
were  tomahawked  and  scalped.  Some  poor  Spaniards,  de 
serters  from  Pensacola,  were  kneeling  along  the  pickets, 
and  were  tomahawked,  one  after  another,  as  they  knelt. 
Weathersford,  who  was  not  a  savage,  but  a  misguided  hero 
and  patriot,  worthy  of  Tecumseh's  friendship,  did  what  Te- 
cumseh  would  have  done  if  he  had  been  there  :  he  tried  to 
stop  this  horrid  carnage.  But  the  Indians  were  delirious 
and  frantic  with  the  love  of  blood,  and  would  not  stay  their 
murderous  hands  while  one  of  that  mass  of  human  victims 
continued  to  live. 

At  noon  that  day,  as  we  have  seen,  five  hundred  and 
fifty  three  persons  were  inmates  of  Fort  Mims.  At  sunset, 
four  hundred  mangled,  scalped  and  bloody  corpses  were 
heaped  and  strewed  within  its  wooden  walls.  Not  one 
white  woman,  not  one  white  child,  escaped.  Twelve  of 
the  garrison,  at  the  last  moment,  by  cutting  through  two 
of  the  pickets,  got  out  of  the  fort,  and  fled  to  the  swamp. 
A  large  number  of  the  negroes  were  spared  by  the  Indians 
and  kept  for  slaves.  A  few  half-breeds  were  made  prisoners. 
Captain  Bailey,  severely  wounded,  ran  to  the  swamp,  and 
died  by  the  side  of  a  cypress  stump.  A  negro  woman,  with 
a  ball  in  her  breast,  reached  a  canoe  on  lake  Tensaw,  and 
paddled  fifteen  miles  to  Fort  Stoddart,  and  bore  the  first 
news  of  the  massacre  to  Governor  Claiborne.  Most  of  the 


418  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

men  who  fled  from  the  slaughter  wandered  for  days  in  the 
swamps  and  forests,  and  only  reached  places  of  safety,  nearly 
starved,  after  many  a  hair-breadth  escape  from  the  Indians. 
Some  of  them  are  still  living,  from  whose  lips,  Mr.  A.  J. 
Pickett,  the  historian  of  Alabama,  gathered  most  of  the 
particulars  which  have  been  briefly  related  here. 

The  garrison  sold  their  lives  as  dearly  as  they  could.  It 
is  thought  that  four  hundred  of  Weathersford's  band  were 
killed  and  wounded.  That  night  the  savages,  exhausted 
with  tkir  bloody  work,  appear  to  have  slept  near  the  scene 
of  the  massacre.  Next  day  they  returned  to  bury  their  dead, 
but  fatigued  with  the  number,  gave  it  up,  and  left  many  ex 
posed.  Ten  days  after,  Major  Kennedy  reached  the  spot  with 
a  detachment  of  troops  to  bury  the  bodies  of  the  whites,  and 
found  the  air  dark  with  buzzards,  and  hundreds  of  dogs 
gnawing  the  bodies.  In  two  large  pits  the  troops,  shudder 
ing  now  with  horror,  and  now  fierce  for  revenge,  succeeded 
at  length  in  burying  the  remains  of  their  countrymen  and 
countrywomen.  Major  Kennedy  said  in  his  report,  "  Indians, 
negroes,  white  men,  women  and  children,  lay  in  one  pro 
miscuous  ruin.  All  were  scalped,  and  the  females  of  every 
age  were  butchered  in  a  manner  which  neither  decency  noi 
language  will  permit  me  to  describe.  The  main  building 
was  burned  to  ashes,  which  were  filled  with  bones.  The 
plains  and  woods  around  were  covered  with  dead  bodies. 
All  the  houses  were  consumed  by  fire,  except  the  block  house 
and  a  part  of  the  pickets.  The  soldiers  and  officers  with 
one  voice  called  on  divine  Providence  to  revenge  the  death 
of  our  murdered  friends." 

Such  was  the  massacre  at  Fort  Mims.  The  news  flew 
upon  the  wings  of  the  wind.  From  Mobile  to  the  borders 
of  Tennessee,  from  the  vicinity  of  New  Orleans  almost  to 
the  coast  of  Georgia,  there  was  felt  to  be  no  safety  for  the 
white  man  except  in  fortified  posts  ;  nor  certain  safety  even 
in  them.  In  the  country  of  the  Alabama  river  and  its 
branches,  every  white  man,  woman  and  child,  every  friendly 
half-breed  and  Indian,  hurried  to  the  stockades,  or  fled  in 


1813.]          THE     MASSACRE     AT      FORT      MIMS.  419 

wild  terror  toward  Mobile.  "  Never  in  my  life,"  wrote  an 
eye-witness,  "  did  I  see  a  country  given  up  before  without  a 
struggle.  Here  are  the  finest  crops  my  eyes  ever  beheld 
made  and  almost  fit  to  be  housed,  with  immense  herds  of 
cattle,  negroes,  and  property,  abandoned  by  their  owners, 
almost  on  the  first  alarm."  Within  the  stockades  diseases 
raged,  and  hundreds  of  families,  unable  to  get  within  those 
enclosures,  lay  around  the  walls,  squalid,  panic-stricken, 
sick,  and  miserable.  Parties  of  Indians  roved  about  the 
country  rioting  in  plunder.  After  burning  the  houses  and 
laying  waste  the  plantations,  they  would  drive  the  cattle 
together  in  herds,  and  either  destroy  them  in  a  mass,  or 
drive  them  off  for  their  future  use.  The  horses  were  taken 
to  facilitate  their  marauding,  and  their  camps  were  filled 
with  the  luxuries  of  the  planters'  houses.  Governor  Clai- 
borne,  a  generous  and  feeling  man,  was  at  his  wits'  end. 
From  every  quarter  came  the  most  urgent  and  pathetic 
demands  for  troops.  Not  a  man  could  be  spared,  for  no 
one  knew  where  next  the  exultant  savages  would  endeavor 
to  repeat  the  catastrophe  of  Fort  Mims  ;  and  in  the  best 
defended  forts  there  were  five  non-combatants  to  one  soldier. 
For  some  weeks  of  the  autumn  of  1813,  it  really  seemed  as 
if  the  white  settlers  of  Alabama,  including  those  of  Mobile 
itself,  were  on  the  point  of  being  exterminated. 

Had  Weathersford's  force  hastened  to  improve  their  vic 
tory,  and  marched  upon  Mobile,  ill-garrisoned  and  crowded 
with  fugitives,  it  is  probable  the  town  would  have  fallen  be 
fore  them,  and  a  direct  communication  with  the  British  fleet 
been  established.  But  an  Indian,  never  very  wise,  is  a  drunken 
fool  after  victory.  He  must  count  and  trim  his  scalps,  re 
count  his  exploits,  secure  his  plunder,  and  miss  the  substan 
tial  advantages  of  his  success. 

This  will  account  for  the  first  delay,  but  not  for  the  final 
relinquishment  of  the  original  design  of  taking  Mobile.  That 
is  no  longer  a  mystery.  Among  the  papers  of  Governor 
Claiborne  is  a  letter  taken  at  a  later  period  of  the  war  from 
Weathersford's  house,  which  seems  completely  to  explain  the 


420  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

course  of  the  Indians  in  sparing  Mobile  and  in  directing 
their  forces  towards  the  frontiers  of  Georgia  and  Tennessee. 
The  letter  proves  beyond  question,  if  proof  were  needed,  that 
the  Spanish  authorities  of  Florida  sympathized  with  the 
Creeks  in  their  efforts  against  the  United  States,  and  gave 
them  all  the  help  they  could  give,  both  moral  and  substan 
tial.  The  letter  was  dated  Pensacola,  September  29th,  1813, 
a  month  after  the  massacre,  and  was  written  by  Maxeo  Gon 
zalez  Manxique,  then  the  governor  of  Florida.  It  was  ad 
dressed  to  the  Creek  chiefs,  and  read  as  follows  : 

"  GENTLEMEN  : — I  received  the  letter  that  you  wrote  me  in  the  month 
of  August,  by  which,  and  with  great  satisfaction,  I  was  informed  of  the 
advantages  which  your  brave  warriors  obtained  over  your  enemies. 

"  I  represented,  as  I  promised  you,  to  the  Captain  General  of  the  Ha- 
vanna,  the  request  (which  the  last  time  I  took  you  by  the  hand)  you  made 
me  of  arms  and  ammunitions ;  but  until  now  I  can  not  yet  have  an  an 
swer.  But  I  am  in  hopes  that  he  will  send  me  the  effects  which  I  re 
quested,  and  as  soon  as  I  receive  them  I  shall  inform  you. 

"  I  am  very  thankful  for  your  generous  offers  to  procure  to  me  the 
provisions  and  warriors  necessary  in  order  to  retake  the  post  of  Mobile, 
and  you  ask  me  at  the  same  time  if  we  have  given  up  Mobile  to  the  Amer 
icans  ?  To  which  I  answer,  for  the  present  I  can  not  profit  of  your  gener 
ous  offer,  not  being  at  war  with  the  Americans,  who  did  not  take  Mobile 
by  force,  since  they  purchased  it  from  the  miserable  officer,  destitute  of 
honor,  who  commanded  there,  and  delivered  it  without  authority ;  by 
which  reasons  the  sale  and  delivery  of  that  place  is  entirely  void  and  null, 
and  I  hope  that  the  Americans  will  restore  it  again  to  us,  because  nobody 
can  dispose  of  a  thing  that  is  not  his  own  property ;  in  consequence  of 
which  the  Spaniards  have  not  lost  their  right  to  it ;  and  I  hope  you  will 
not  put  in  execution  the  project  you  tell  me  of,  TO  BURN  THE  TOWN,  since 
those  houses  and  properties  do  not  belong  to  the  'Americans  but  to  true 
Spaniards. 

"  To  the  bearers  of  your  letter  I  have  ordered  some  small  presents  to 
be  given,  and  I  remain  for  ever  your  good  father  and  friend, 

(Signed)  "  MANXIQUE." 

Thus  Mobile  was  spared  the  horrors  of  what  would  prob 
ably  have  been  the  most  terrible  massacre  on  record.  And 
thus  were  the  Creek  warriors  detained  in  the  heart  of  the 


1813.]  TENNESSEE     IN     THE     FIELD.  421 

country,  and  led  by  the  counsels  of  their  friend  and  ally  to 
go  and  meet  their  doom. 

The  news  of  the  massacre  at  Fort  Mims  was  thirty-one 
days  in  reaching  New  York.  It  is  a  proof  how  occupied 
were  the  minds  of  the  people  in  the  northern  States  with 
great  events,  that  the  dread  narrative  appeared  in  the  New 
York  papers  only  as  an  item  of  war  news  of  comparatively 
small  importance.  The  last  prodigious  acts  in  the  drama  of 
Napoleon's  decline  and  fall  were  watched  with  absorbing  in 
terest.  The  news  of  Perry's  victory  on  Lake  Erie  had  just 
thrilled  the  nation  with  delight  and  pride,  and  all  minds  were 
still  eager  for  every  new  particular.  Harrison's  victory  on 
the  Thames  over  Proctor  and  Tecumseh  soon  followed.  The 
lamentable  condition  of  the  southern  country  was  therefore 
little  felt  at  the  time  beyond  the  States  immediately  con 
cerned.  Perry  and  Harrison  were  the  heroes  of  the  hour. 
Their  return  from  the  scene  of  their  exploits  was  a  continu 
ous  triumphal  fete. 

In  a  room  at  Nashville,  a  thousand  miles  from  these 
splendid  scenes,  lay  a  gaunt,  yellow-visaged  man,  sick,  de 
feated,  prostrate,  with  his  arm  bound  up,  and  his  shoulders 
bandaged,  waiting  impatiently  for  his  wounds  to  heal,  and 
his  strength  to  return.  Who  then  thought  of  him  in.  con 
nection  with  victory  and  glory  ?  Who  supposed  that  he,  of 
all  men,  was  the  one  destined  to  cast  into  the  shade  those 
favorites  of  the  nation,  and  shine  out  as  the  prime  hero  of 
the  war  ? 


CHAPTER    XXXVIII. 

TENNESSEE      IN      THE      FIELD. 

ALABAMA  was  then  part  of  Mississippi  Territory.  Terri 
fied  and  helpless,  Mississippi  could  look  for  succor  only  to  the 
States  upon  her  borders — Louisiana,  Georgia  and  Tennessee. 
Governor  Claiborne,  of  Louisiana,  in  his  capacity  of  general 


422  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

of  militia,  was  near  the  scene  of  the  massacre  ;  but,  with  a 
force  divided  among  the  posts  in  lower  Alabama,  he  was  in 
capable  of  making  a  single  effective  movement.  To  New 
Orleans,  two  hundred  miles  distant  ;  to  the  capital  of 
Georgia,  three  hundred  miles  distant ;  to  Nashville,  four 
hundred  miles  distant ;  to  Washington,  a  month's  journey  ; 
he  dispatched  expresses,  bearing  intelligence  of  his  situation, 
and  brief,  earnest  entreaties  for  instant  aid.  That  done, 
nothing  remained  for  him  and  his  comrades  but  to  wait  and 
hope. 

There  must  have  been  swift  express  riding  in  those  early 
days  of  September,  and  as  stealthy  as  swift  through  the  In 
dian  country  ;  for,  on  the  18th  of  the  month,  nineteen  days 
after  the  massacre,  we  find  the  people  of  Nashville  assembled 
in  town  meeting  to  deliberate  upon  the  event ;  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Craighead  in  the  chair.  This  was  Saturday.  A  committee, 
of  which  Colonel  Coffee  was  a  member,  was  appointed  to 
confer  with  Governor  Blount  and  General  Jackson,  and  re 
port  on  the  following  day.  On  Sunday  morning  the  citizens 
were  again  in  session,  listening  to  an  eloquent  address  by  the 
reverend  chairman,  and  to  a  series  of  resolutions  urging  the 
immediate  succor  of  the  southern  settlers.  It  was  announced 
that  the  Governor  of  the  State  was  favorable  to  the  measure. 
"  We  have  to  regret,"  said  the  committee,  "  the  present  tem 
porary  indisposition  of  our  brave  and  patriotic  General  Jack 
son  ;  but  we  have  the  utmost  confidence,  from  his  declara 
tions  and  his  convalescent  state,  to  announce  that  he  will  be 
able  to  command  so  soon  as  the  freemen  of  Tennessee  can  be 
collected  to  march  against  the  foe." 

The  news  of  the  massacre  produced  everywhere  in  Ten 
nessee  the  most  profound  impression.  Pity  for  the  distressed 
Alabarnians,  fears  for  the  safety  of  their  own  borders,  rage 
against  the  Creeks,  so  long  the  recipients  of  governmental 
bounty,  united  to  inflame  the  minds  of  the  people.  But 
one  feeling  pervaded  the  State.  With  one  voice,  it  was 
decreed  that  the  entire  resources  and  the  whole  avail 
able  force  of  Tennessee  should  be  hurled  upon  the  savage 


1813.]  TENNESSEE     IN      THE     FIELD.  423 

foe,  to  avenge  the  massacre  and  deliver  the  southern  conn- 
try. 

"  I  hope  in  God/'  wrote  General  Sevier,  then  in  Congress, 
"  that  as  the  rascals  have  begun,  we  shall  now  have  it  in  our 
power  to  pay  them  for  the  old  and  for  the  new/'*  This  was 
the  feeling  of  the  entire  South-west. 

General  Jackson  was  prompt  in  issuing  a  most  character 
istic  address  to  the  volunteers,  sending  it  forth  before  it  was 
known  whether  the  troops  would  receive  pay  for  a  service 
unauthorized  by  the  general  government.  "  The  horrid  but 
cheries/'  said  he,  "  perpetrating  on  our  defenseless  fellow-citi 
zens  near  Fort  Stoddart,  can  not  fail  to  excite  in  every  bosom 
a  spirit  of  revenge.  The  subjoined  letter  of  our  worthy  gov 
ernor  shows  that  the  general  government  has  deposited  no 
authority  in  this  quarter  to  afford  aid  to  the  unhappy  suffer 
ers.  It  is  wished  that  volunteers  should  go  forward  relying 
on  the  justice  of  the  general  government  for  ultimate  remu 
neration.  It  surely  never  would  be  said  that  the  brave  Ten- 
nesseeans  wanted  other  inducements  than  patriotism  and 
humanity  to  rush  to  the  aid  of  our  bleeding  neighbors,  their 
friends  and  relations.  I  feel  confident  the  dull  calculations 
of  sneaking  prudence  will  not  prevent  you  from  immediately 
stepping  forth  on  this  occasion,  so  worthy  the  arm  of  every 
brave  soldier  and  good  citizen.  I  regret  that  indisposition, 
which,  from  present  appearances,  is  not  likely  to  continue 
long,  may  prevent  me  from  leading  the  van  ;  but  indulge  the 
grateful  hope  of  sharing  with  you  the  dangers  and  glory  of 
prostrating  those  hell-houuds,  who  are  capable  of  such  bar 
barities.  In  the  meantime,  let  all  who  can  arm  themselves 
do  so,  and  hasten  to  Fort  St.  Stephens." 

The  Legislature  of  Tennessee,  however,  at  once  responded 
to  the  people's  desire.  On  the  25th  of  September  an  act  was 
passed  empowering  Governor  Blount  to  call  thirty-five  hun 
dred  volunteers  to  the  field,  in  addition  to  the  fifteen  hundred 
already  enrolled  in  the  service  of  the  United  States ;  the 

*  MSS.  of  Colonel  A.  W.  Putnam. 


424  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

State  guaranteeing  their  pay  and  subsistence  in  case  the  gen 
eral  government  should  refuse  to  adopt  the  measure  as  its 
own.  A  sum  of  three  hundred  thousand  dollars  was  voted 
to  defray  immediate  expenses. 

It  chanced  that  General  John  Cocke,  of  East  Tennessee, 
a  gallant  and  worthy  gentleman,  much  calumniated  in  the 
histories  of  this  period,  was  at  Nashville  when  the  express 
from  Governor  Claiborne  arrived.  General  Cocke,  though  a 
major  general,  was  younger  in  the  service  than  General  Jack 
son,  and  subject  to  his  orders  when  both  were  in  the  field. 
At  the  request  of  Governor  Blount,  he  remained  to  concert 
the  requisite  measures,  and,  in  company  with  the  Governor, 
repaired  to  the  bed  side  of  Jackson.  They  found  the  Gen 
eral  extremely  worn  and  debilitated,  the  fracture  just  begin 
ning  to  heal.  Governor  Blount  said  that  he  had  just  ordered 
General  Cocke  to  summon  the  troops  of  East  Tennessee  to 
rendezvous  at  Knoxville  ;  and  he  was  prepared  to  give  Gen 
eral  Jackson  a  similar  order  for  the  western  division,  if 
he  was  able  to  take  the  field.  Jackson  replied  that  his 
wounds  were  improving,  and  he  thought  that  by  the  time  the 
troops  could  assemble  he  would  be  ready  to  assume  the  com 
mand.  Governor  Blount  then  gave  the  order.  Jackson  in 
quired  if  provisions  could  be  procured  in  East  Tennessee  for 
both  divisions.  General  Cocke  thought  there  could ;  and 
promising,  at  General  Jackson's  request,  to  make  the  neces 
sary  requisition  upon  the  government  contractor  at  Knoxville, 
took  his  departure,  carrying  with  him  a  written  statement 
of  the  supplies  that  would  be  needed  for  General  Jackson's 
army. 

The  sick  General  fell  vigorously  to  his  task.  On  the  25th 
of  September,  in  another  spirit-stirring  address,  he  called  his 
division  to  the  field,  naming  the  4th  of  October  as  the  time, 
and  Fayetteville,  a  village  near  the  borders  of  Alabama,  as  the 
place  of  rendezvous.  On  the  26th,  he  dispatched  his  old 
friend  and  partner,  Colonel  Coffee,  with  his  regiment  of  five 
hundred  horse,  and  such  mounted  volunteers  as  could  instantly 
join,  to  Huntsville,  in  the  northern  part  of  Alabama,  to  re- 


TENNESSEE     IN     THE     FIELD.  425 

store  confidence  to  the  frontier.  Huntsville  is  a  hundred 
miles  or  more  from  Nashville.  On  the  4th  of  October,  the 
energetic  Coffee  had  reached  the  place,  his  force  increased  to 
nearly  thirteen  hundred  men ;  and  volunteers,  as  he  wrote 
back  to  his  commander,  flocking  in  every  hour. 

The  day  named  for  the  rendezvous  at  Fayetteville  was 
exactly  one  month  from  that  on  which  the  commanding  Gen 
eral  received  his  wounds  in  the  affray  with  the  Bentons.  He 
could  not  mount  his  horse  without  assistance  when  the  time 
came  for  him  to  move  toward  the  rendezvous.  His  left  arm 
was  bound  and  in  a  sling.  He  could  not  wear  his  coat-sleeve  ; 
nor,  during  any  part  of  his  military  career,  could  he  long 
endure  on  his  left  shoulder  the  weight  of  an  epaulette.  Often, 
in  the  crisis  of  a  maneuver,  some  unguarded  movement  would 
send  such  a  thrill  of  agony  through  his  attenuated  frame  as 
almost  to  deprive  him  of  consciousness.  It  could  not  have 
been  a  pleasant  thought  that  he  had  squandered  in  a  paltry, 
puerile,  private  contest,  the  strength  he  needed  for  the  de 
fense  of  his  country.  Grievous  was  his  fault  ;  bitter  the 
penalty  ;  noble  the  atonement. 

Fayetteville,  the  place  of  rendezvous  (more  than  eighty 
miles  from  Nashville),  the  General  was  unable,  with  all  his 
efforts,  to  reach  on  the  appointed  day.  He  therefore  sent 
forward  his  aid,  Major  John  Eeid,  to  represent  him,  and  to 
read  to  the  troops  an  address  prepared  for  the  occasion. 

General  Jackson,  in  all  his  wars  (both  military  and  polit 
ical),  relied  much  upon  the  potency  of  words.  He  was  accus 
tomed  to  begin  and  end  all  operations  with  an  address.  That 
these  compositions  were  never  executed  entirely  by  his  own 
hand  is  a  fact  of  no  importance  ;  they  expressed  his  ideas, 
they  breathed  his  spirit,  they  declared  his  resolves. 

The  addresses  and  dispatches  of  Jackson  were  universally 
admired  in  their  day,  as  we  can  still  observe  in  the  comments 
of  the  old  newspapers.  There  is  a  glow,  a  rough-and-ready 
sense  and  energy  about  them  which  the  modern  reader  will 
not  mistake  for  the  bombast  of  the  stump.  They  are  too 
characteristic  of  the  man,  too  redolent  of  the  scenes  in  which 


426  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

he  acted,  to  be  omitted  in  any  adequate  narrative  of  his  life 
and  achievements.  Discipline,  the  weak  point  of  an  army  of 
militia,  was  the  leading  topic  in  the  address  read  by  Major 
Eeid  on  this  occasion  : — 

"  We  are  about,"  said  he,  "  to  furnish  these  savages  a  lesson  of  ad 
monition  ;  we  are  about  to  teach  them  that  our  long  forbearance  has  not 
proceeded  from  an  insensibility  to  wrongs,  or  an  inability  to  redress  them. 
They  stand  in  need  of  such  warning.  In  proportion  as  we  have  borne 
with  their  insults,  and  submitted  to  their  outrages,  they  have  multiplied  in 
number,  and  increased  in  atrocity.  But  the  measure  of  their  offenses  is  at 
length  filled.  The  blood  of  our  women  and  children,  recently  spilt  at  Fort 
Minis,  calls  for  our  vengeance ;  it  must  not  call  in  vain.  Our  borders  must 
no  longer  be  disturbed  by  the  war-whoop  of  these  savages,  and  the  cries 
of  their  suffering  victims.  The  torch  that  has  been  lighted  up  must  be 
made  to  blaze  in  the  heart  of  their  own  country.  It  is  time  they  should 
be  made  to  feel  the  weight  of  a  power,  which,  because  it  was  merciful,  they 
believed  to  be  impotent.  But  how  shall  a  war  so  long  forborne,  and  so 
loudly  called  for  by  retributive  justice,  be  waged  ?  Shall  we  imitate  the 
example  of  our  enemies,  in  the  disorder  of  their  movements  aud  the  savage- 
ness  of  their  dispositions  ?  Is  it  worthy  the  character  of  American  soldiers, 
who  take  up  arms  to  redress  the  wrongs  of  an  injured  country,  to  assume 
no  better  models  than  those  furnished  them  by  barbarians  ?  No,  fellow- 
soldiers  ;  great  as  are  the  grievances  that  have  called  us  from  our  homes, 
we  must  not  permit  disorderly  passions  to  tarnish  the  reputation  we  shall 
carry  along  with  us.  We  must  and  will  be  victorious ;  but  we  must  con 
quer  as  men  who  owe  nothing  to  chance,  and  who,  in  the  midst  of  victory, 
can  still  be  mindful  of  what  is  due  to  humanity ! 

"  We  will  commence  the  campaign  by  an  inviolable  attention  to  disci 
pline  and  subordination.  Without  a  strict  observance  of  these,  victory 
must  ever  be  uncertain,  and  ought  hardly  to  be  exulted  in,  even  when 
gained.  To  what  but  the  entire  disregard  of  order  and  subordination,  are 
we  to  ascribe  the  disasters  which  have  attended  our  arms  in  the  North 
during  the  present  war  ?  How  glorious  will  it  be  to  remove  the  blots 
which  have  tarnished  the  fair  character  bequeathed  us  by  the  fathers  of 
our  Revolution  !  The  bosom  of  your  general  is  full  of  hope.  He  knows 
the  ardor  which  animates  you,  and  already  exults  in  the  triumph  which 
your  strict  observance  of  discipline  and  good  order  will  render  certain." 

The  rudimental  character  of  the  orders  which  accompanied 
this  address  shows  how  little  accustomed  were  the  volun 
teers  to  the  restraints  of  service.  No  sutler  could  sell  liquor 


1813.]  TENNESSEE     IN     THE     FIELD.  427 

to  a  soldier  without  the  written  permission  of  a  commissioned 
officer.  Drunkenness,  "  the  bane  of  all  orderly  encampments," 
would  subject  an  officer  to  arrest ;  a  private,  to  confinement 
until  tried  by  a  court-martial.  No  citizen  could  enter  or 
leave  the  camp  at  night.  No  officer  or  soldier  to  sleep  out 
of  camp  without  permission.  "  On  parade,  silence,  the  duty 
of  a  soldier,  is  positively  commanded."  Even  these  simple 
rules  were  thought  by  this  army  of  hunting-shirted  pioneers 
to  be  extremely  rigorous. 

Traveling  as  fast  as  his  healing  wounds  permitted,  Gen 
eral  Jackson  reached  Fayetteville  on  the  7th  of  October,  and 
found  that  less  than  half  of  the  two  thousand  men  ordered 
out  had  assembled.  But  welcome  tidings  from  Colonel  Cof 
fee  awaited  him.  Hitherto,  he  had  chiefly  feared  for  the 
safety  of  Mobile,  and  had  anticipated  a  long  and  weary  march 
into  southern  Alabama.  He  now  learned  from  Colonel  Cof 
fee's  dispatch,  that  the  Indians  seemed  to  have  abandoned 
their  designs  upon  Mobile,  and  were  making  their  way,  in 
two  parties,  toward  the  borders  of  Georgia  and  Tennessee. 
This  was  joyful  news  to  the  enfeebled  but  fiery  commander. 
"  It  is  surely/'  he  wrote  back  to  Coffee  the  same  evening, 
"  high  gratification  to  learn  that  the  Creeks  are  so  attentive 
to  my  situation  as  to  save  me  the  pain  of  traveling.  I  must 
not  be  outdone  in  politeness,  and  will  therefore  endeavor  to 
meet  them  on  the  middle  ground." 

A  week  was  passed  at  Fayetteville  in  waiting  for  the 
troops,  procuring  supplies,  organizing  the  regiments,  and 
drilling  the  men  ;  a  week  of  intense  exertion  on  the  part  of 
the  General,  to  whom  congenial  employment  brought  daily 
restoration. 

At  one  o'clock  on  Monday,  the  llth  of  October,  an  ex 
press  dashed  into  camp  with  another  dispatch  from  Colonel 
Coffee,  announcing  the  approach  of  the  enemy.  Then  was 
seen  the  impetuous  energy  of  the  General  in  command.  The 
order  to  prepare  for  marching  was  given  on  the  instant.  A 
few  minutes  later,  the  express  was  galloping  back  to  Coffee's 
camp,  carrying  a  few  hasty  lines  from  Jackson,  to  the  effect 


428  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

that,  in  two  hours,  he  would  be  in  motion  with  all  his  avail 
able  force.  Before  three,  he  had  kept  his  word  ;  the  army 
was  in  full  career  toward  Hunts ville.  Excited  more  and 
more,  as  they  went,  by  rumor  of  Indian  murders,  the  men 
marched  with  such  incredible  swiftness  as  to  reach  Hunts- 
ville,  thirty-two  miles  from  Fayetteville,  by  eight  o'clock  the 
same  evening  !  It  is  hard  to  believe  that  an  army  could 
march  six  miles  an  hour  for  five  hours,  but  the  fact  is  stated 
on  what  may  be  considered  the  authority  of  General  Jackson 
himself.  No  white  men  but  western  pioneers  could  perform  a 
feat  of  that  description  ;  and  of  such  men,  who  made  the 
most  difficult,  important,  and  costly  conquest  ever  made  by 
man — the  conquest  of  the  western  world  from  the  wilderness 
and  the  savage — who  shall  say  what  they  could  or  could  not 
do  in  the  way  of  physical  achievement  ?  At  Huntsville,  it 
was  found  that  the  news  of  the  rapid  approach  of  the  Indians 
was  exaggerated.  The  next  day,  therefore,  the  force  marched 
leisurely  to  the  Tennessee  river,  crossed  it,  and  toward  even 
ing  came  up  with  Colonel  Coffee's  command,  encamped  on 
the  south  side  of  the  river. 

So  far  all  had  gone  well.  There  they  were,  twenty-five 
hundred  of  them,  in  the  pleasant  autumn  weather,  upon  a  high 
bluff  overlooking  the  beautiful  Tennessee,  all  in  high  spirits, 
eager  to  be  led  against  the  enemy.  There  were  jovial  souls 
among  them.  David  Crockett,  then  the  peerless  bear-hunter 
of  the  West  (to  be  member  of  Congress  by  and  by,  to  be  na 
tional  joker,  and  to  stump  the  country  against  his  present 
commander)  was  there  with  his  rifle  and  hunting-shirt,  the 
merriest  of  the  merry,  keeping  the  camp  alive  with  his  quaint 
conceits  and  marvelous  narratives.  He  had  a  hereditary 
right  to  be  there,  for  both  his  grandparents  had  been  mur 
dered  by  Creeks,  and  other  relatives  carried  into  long  cap 
tivity  by  them.  "  Perfectly  a  child  of  nature,"  observed  his 
biographer,  "  and  thrown  by  accident  among  men  raised,  like 
himself,  on  the  frontiers,  and  consequently  uneducated,  he 
was  perfectly  at  home.  Naturally  of  a  fine  person,  with  a 
goodness  of  heart  rarely  equaled,  and  a  talent  for  humor 


1813.]  TENNESSEE     IN     THE     FIELD.  429 

never  excelled,  he  soon  found  his  way  to  the  hearts  of  his 
messmates.  No  man  ever  enjoyed  a  greater  degree  of  per 
sonal  popularity  than  did  David  Crockett  while  with  the 
army  ;  and  his  success  in  political  life  is  mainly  attributable 
to  that  fact.  I  have  met  with  many  of  his  messmates,  who 
spoke  of  him  with  the  affection  of  a  brother,  and  from  them 
have  heard  many  anecdotes,  which  convince  me  how  much 
goodness  of  heart  he  really  possessed.  He  not  unfrequently 
would  lay  out  his  own  money  to  buy  a  blanket  for  a  suffering 
soldier  ;  and  never  did  he  own  a  dollar  which  was  not  at  the 
service  of  the  first  friend  who  called  for  it.  Blessed  with  a 
memory  which  never  forgot  any  thing,  he  seemed  merely  a 
depository  of  anecdote  :  while,  at  the  same  time,  to  invent, 
when  at  a  loss,  was  as  easy  as  to  narrate  those  which  he  had 
already  heard.  These  qualities  made  him  the  rallying  point 
for  fun  with  all  his  messmates,  and  served  to  give  him  that 
notoriety  which  he  now  possesses/' 

Merriment,  meanwhile,  was  far  from  the  heart  of  the  Gen 
eral.  Grappling  now  with  the  chronic  difficulty  of  the  cam 
paign,  he  was  torn  with  impatience  and  anxiety. 

Twenty-five  hundred  men  and  thirteen  hundred  horses  on 
a  bluff  of  the  Tennessee,  on  the  borders  of  civilization,  about 
to  plunge  into  pathless  woods,  and  march,  no  one  knew  how 
far,  into  the  fastnesses  and  secret  retreats  of  a  savage  en 
emy  !  Such  a  body  will  consume  ten  wagon-loads  of  provis 
ions  every  day.  For  a  week's  subsistence  they  require  a 
thousand  bushels  of  grain,  twenty  tons  of  flesh,  a  thousand 
gallons  of  whisky,  and  many  hundredweight  of  miscellaneous 
stores.  Assemble,  suddenly,  such  a  force  in  the  most  popu 
lous  county  of  Illinois,  as  Illinois  now  is,  and  it  would  not 
be  a  quite  easy  matter,  in  the  space  of  seventeen  days,  to  or 
ganize  a  system  of  supply  so  that  the  army  could  march 
thirty  miles  a  day  into  the  forest,  and  be  sure  of  finding  a 
day's  rations  waiting  for  them  at  the  end  of  every  day's 
march.  Colonel  Coffee,  moreover,  had  been  encamped  for 
eight  days  upon  the  bluff,  had  swept  the  surrounding  country 
of  its  forage,  and  gathered  in  nearly  all  the  provisions  it  could 
VOL.  i. — 28 


430  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

furnish.  All  this  G-eneral  Jackson  had  expected,  and  hither, 
accordingly,  he  had  directed  the  supplies  from  East  Tennes 
see  to  be  sent. 

General  Cocke  had  performed  all  that  he  had  promised 
by  Jackson's  bed  side.  Besides  mustering  his  own  division  of 
twenty-five  hundred  men,  and  having  them  ready  to  march 
by  the  2d  of  October,  he  had  made  the  promised  requisi 
tion  on  the  government  contractor  at  Knoxville  for  the  sup 
ply  of  Jackson's  army,  which  was  three  hundred  miles  down 
the  river.  The  contractor  had  abundant  provisions,  and  in 
stantly  set  about  dispatching  them.  "  I  believe,"  wrote 
G-eneral  Cocke  to  Jackson,  on  the  2d  day  of  October,  "  a 
thousand  barrels  of  flour  can  be  had  immediately.  I  will 
send  it  on  to  Ditto's  landing  (Jackson's  camp)  without  de 
lay."  To  the  river's  side  they  were  sent  promptly  enough. 
But  the  Tennessee,  like  most  of  the  western  rivers,  is  not 
navigable  in  its  upper  waters  in  dry  seasons,  and  the  flour 
which  General  Jackson  expected  to  find  awaiting  him  at 
Coffee's  bluff,  was  still  hundreds  of  miles  up  the  river, 
"  waiting  for  a  rise."  His  whole  stock,  at  present,  amounted 
to  only  a  few  days'  supply.  To  proceed  seemed  impossible. 

He  was  bitterly  disappointed.  Nor  was  the  cause  of  the 
delay  apparent  to  him,  since  the  Tennessee,  where  he  saw  it, 
flowed  by  in  a  sufficient  stream.  Chafing  under  the  enforced 
delay,  like  a  war-horse  restrained  from  the  charge  after  the 
trumpet  has  sounded,  he  denounced  the  contractor  and  the 
contract  system,  and  even  General  Cocke,  who,  zealous  for 
the  service,  had  gone  far  beyond  the  line  of  his  duty  in  his 
efforts  to  forward  the  supplies. 

But  General  Jackson  did  better  things  than  these.  Per 
ceiving  now,  only  too  clearly,  that  this  matter  of  provisions 
was  to  be  the  great  difficulty  of  the  campaign,  he  sent  back 
to  Nashville  his  friend  and  quarter-master,  Major  William 
B.  Lewis,  in  order  that  he  might  have  some  one  there  upon 
whose  zeal  and  discretion  he  could  entirely  rely,  and  who 
would  do  all  that  man  could  do  for  his  relief.  Colonel  Cof 
fee,  with  a  body  of  seven  hundred  mounted  men,  he  sent 


1813.]  TENNESSEE     IN     THE     FIELD.  431 

away  from  his  hungry  camp  to  scour  the  banks  of  the  Black 
Warrior,  a  branch  of  the  Tombigbee.  He  gave  the  infantry 
who  remained  as  hard  a  week's  drilling  as  ever  volunteers 
submitted  to.  Order  arose  from  confusion  ;  discipline  began 
to  exert  its  potent  spell,  and  the  mob  of  pioneer  militia  as 
sumed  something  of  the  aspect  of  an  army.  While  he  was 
thus  engaged,  a  friendly  chief  (Shelocta)  came  into  camp 
with  news  that  hostile  Creeks,  in  a  considerable  body,  were 
threatening  a  fort  occupied  by  friendly  Indians  near  the  Ten 
Islands  of  the  Coosa.  The  route  thither  lying  in  part  up  the 
Tennessee,  Jackson  resolved,  with  such  provisions  as  he  had, 
to  go  and  meet  the  expected  flotilla,  and,  having  obtained 
supplies,  to  strike  at  once  into  the  heart  of  the  Indian  coun 
try  and  relieve  the  friendly  fort.  He  lived,  during  these 
anxious  days,  with  an  eye  ever  on  the  river,  heart-sick  with 
hope  deferred. 

On  the  19th  of  October  the  camp  on  the  bluff  broke  up. 
Three  days  of  marching,  climbing,  and  road  cutting,  over 
mountains  before  supposed  to  be  impassable,  brought  the 
little  army  to  Thompson's  creek,  a  branch  of  the  Tennessee, 
twenty- two  miles  above  the  previous  encampment,  To  his 
inexpressible  disappointment,  he  found  there  neither  provis 
ions,  nor  tidings  of  provisions.  In  circumstances  so  disheart 
ening  and  unexpected,  most  men  would  have  thought  it  bet 
ter  generalship  to  retreat  to  the  settlements,  and  wait  in  safety 
while  adequate  arrangements  were  made  for  the  support  of 
the  army.  No  such  thought  appears  to  have  occurred  to 
the  General.  Eetreat  at  that  moment  would  have  probably 
tempted  the  enemy  to  the  frontiers  of  Tennessee,  and  cov 
ered  them  with  fire  and  desolation.  Jackson  halted  his  force 
at  Thompson's  creek,  and  while  his  men  were  employed  in 
throwing  up  a  fort  to  be  used  as  a  depot  for  the  still  expected 
provisions,  he  sat  in  Ms  tent  for  three  days  writing  letters  the 
most  pathetic  and  imploring.  He  wrote  to  General  Cocke 
and  Judge  Hugh  L.  White,  of  East  Tennessee  ;  to  the  gov 
ernors  of  Tennessee  and  Georgia ;  to  the  Indian  agents  among 
the  Cherokees  and  Choctaws  ;  to  friendly  Indian  chiefs  ;  to 


432  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

General  Flourney,  of  New  Orleans ;  to  various  private  friends 
of  known  public  spirit ;  appealing  to  every  motive  of  inter 
est  and  patriotism  that  could  influence  men,  entreating  them 
to  use  all  personal  exertions  and  public  authority  in  forward 
ing  supplies  to  his  destitute  army.  Give  me  provisions,  was 
the  burden  of  these  eloquent  letters,  and  I  will  end  this  war 
in  a  month.  "  There  is  an  enemy,"  he  wrote,  "whom  I  dread 
much  more  than  I  do  the  hostile  Creeks,  and  whose  power,  I 
am  fearful,  I  shall  first  be  made  to  feel — I  mean  the  meager 
monster,  FAMINE.  I  shall  leave  this  encampment  in  the 
morning  direct  for  the  Ten  Islands,  and  thence,  with  as 
little  delay  as  possible,  to  the  junction  of  the  Coosa  and 
Tallapoosa;  and  yet  I  have  not  on  hand  two  days'  supply  of 
breadstufTs." 

I  have  before  me  a  familiar,  hasty  letter,  written  at  the 
Thompson's  creek  encampment  by  Major  Keid,  the  General's 
aid,  to  Major  William  B.  Lewis,  which  reveals  the  situation 
vividly. 

JOHN    REID    TO    WILLIAM    B.    LEWIS. 

CAMP  DEPOSIT,  ON  THOMPSON'S  CREEK,  October  24,  1813. 

"MAJOR  LEWIS:  DEAR  SIR: — We  have  cut  our  way  over  mountains 
more  tremendous  than  the  Alps,  and  to-day  we  ascend  others. 

At  this  place  we  have  remained  a  day  for  the  purpose  of  establishing 
a  depot  for  provisions ;  but  where  those  provisions  are  to  come  from,  or 
when  they  are  to  arrive,  G-od  Almighty  only  knows.  We  had  expected 
supplies  from  East  Tennessee,  but  they  have  not  arrived,  and  I  am  fearful 
never  will.  I  speak  seriously  when  I  declare,  I  expect  we  shall  soon  have 
to  eat  our  horses,  and  perhaps  this  is  the  best  use  we  can  put  a  great  many 
of  them  to. 

The  hostile  Creeks,  as  we  learnt  yesterday,  from  the  Pathkiller,  are 
assembling  in  great  numbers  within  fifteen  miles  from  Turkey  Town. 
Chenully,  who  is  posted  with  the  friendly  Creeks  in  the  neighborhood  of 
that  place,  it  is  feared,  will  be  destroyed  before  we  can  arrive  to  their  relief. 
In  three  days  we  shall  probably  have  a  fight.  The  General  swears  he  will 
neither  sound  a  retreat  nor  survive  a  defeat. 

General  White,  of  the  East  Tennessee  militia,  has  not  yet  joined  us,  nor 
has  Colonel  Coffee  returned,  who  was  dispatched  before  you  left  us ;  but 


1813.]  TENNESSEE     IN     THE   FIELD.  433 

we  understand  that  Coffee  lay  within  ten  miles  of  us  last  night,  and  will  be 
up  by  twelve  o'clock.     He  saw  no  Indians,  but  burnt  some  towns. 

General  White,  with  the  advanced  division,  consisting  perhaps  of  .a 
thousand,  arrived  near  a  week  ago  at  the  foot  of  the  Lookout  Mountain, 
and  will  probably  form  a  junction  with  us  in  a  few  days,  if  our  movements 
should  not  be  too  speedy  for  his.  We,  however,  have  been  greatly  delayed 
by  the  irregularity  and  scantiness  of  our  supplies,  and  the  ruggedness  of 
the  mountaiLS  over  which  we  have  had  to  pass  ;  and  the  same  causes  will, 
no  doubt,  continue  to  impede  our  progress. 

We  are  distant  from  the  Ten  Islands  about  fifty  miles  by  the  nearest 
route,  for  which  place  we  shall  recommence  our  march  in  the  evening, 
leaving  Turkey  Town  and  Chenully's  Fort  to  the  left,  unless  we  should 
find  it  necessary  to  go  by  them  for  their  relief. 

We  shall  leave  this  place  with  less  than  two  days'  supply  of  pro 
visions.  Adieu,  Write  me  if  you  have  an  opportunity.  I  am  in  a  great 
hurry.  Farewell  again. 

JOHN  EEID.* 

Colonel  Coffee  soon  after  rejoined  the  General.  In  twelve 
days  he  had  marched  two  hundred  miles,  burnt  two  Indian 
towns,  collected  three  or  four  hundred  bushels  of  corn,  and 
returned  to  the  Tennessee  without  having  seen  a  hostile 
Indian.  Kunners  still  arriving  from  the  Ten  Islands  with 
entreaties  from  the  friendly  Indians  for  relief,  Jackson,  with 
two  days'  supply  of  bread  and  six  of  flesh,  resolved  to  march, 
and  depend  for  subsistence  upon  chance  and  victory. 

Before  leaving  Fort  Deposit — by  this  name  he  called  the 
fort  constructed  at  Thompson's  creek — he  caused  a  second 
address  to  be  read  to  the  army.  It  tells  its  own  story : — 

"  You  have,  fellow-soldiers,  at  length  penetrated  the  country  of  your 
enemies.  It  is  not  to  be  believed  that  they  will  abandon  the  soil  that  em 
bosoms  the  bones  of  their  forefathers,  without  furnishing  you  an  opportu 
nity  of  signalizing  your  valor.  Wise  men  do  not  expect,  brave  men  will  not 
desire  it.  It  was  not  to  travel  unmolested  through  a  barren  wilderness  that 
you  quitted  your  families  and  homes,  and  submitted  to  so  many  privations  ; 
it  was  to  revenge  the  cruelties  committed  upon  your  defenseless  frontiers 
by  the  inhuman  Creeks,  instigated  by  their  no  less  inhuman  allies ;  you 
shall  not  be  disappointed.  If  the  enemy  flee  before  us,  we  will  overtake 

*  Manuscripts  of  Major  William  B.  Lewis. 


434  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

and  chastise  him ;  we  will  teach  him  how  dreadful,  when  once  aroused,  is 
the  resentment  of  freemen.  But  it  is  not  by  boasting  that  punishment  is 
to  be  inflicted  or  victory  obtained.  The  same  resolution  that  prompted  us 
to  take  up  arms  must  inspire  us  in  battle.  Men  thus  animated,  and  thus 
resolved,  barbarians  can  never  conquer ;  and  it  is  an  enemy,  barbarous  in 
the  extreme,  that  we  have  now  to  face.  Their  reliance  will  be  on  the 
damage  they  can  do  you  while  you  are  asleep  and  unprepared  for  action  ; 
their  hopes  shall  fail  them  in  the  hour  of  experiment.  Soldiers  who  know 
their  duty,  and  are  ambitious  to  perform  it,  are  not  to  be  taken  by  sur 
prise.  Our  sentinels  will  never  sleep,  nor  our  soldiers  be  unprepared  for 
action ;  yet,  while  it  is  enjoined  upon  the  sentinels  vigilantly  to  watch  the 
approach  of  the  foe,  they  are,  at  the  same  time,  commanded  not  to  fire  at 
shadows.  Imaginary  danger  must  not  deprive  them  of  entire  self-posses 
sion.  Our  soldiers  will  lie  with  their  arms  in  their  hands ;  and  the  moment 
an  alarm  is  given,  they  will  move  to  their  respective  positions,  without  noise, 
and  without  confusion ;  they  will  thus  be  enabled  to  hear  the  orders  of 
their  officers,  and  to  obey  them  with  promptitude. 

"  Great  reliance  will  be  placed  by  the  enemy  on  the  consternation  they 
may  be  able  to  spread  through  our  ranks  by  the  hideous  yells  with  which 
they  commence  their  battles ;  but  brave  men  will  laugh  at  such  efforts  to 
alarm  them.  It  is  not  by  bello wings  and  screams  that  the  wounds  of  death 
are  inflicted.  You  will  teach  these  noisy  assailants  how  weak  are  their 
weapons  of  warfare,  by  opposing  them  with  the  bayonet.  What  Indian 
ever  withstood  its  charge  ?  What  army  of  any  nation  ever  withstood  it 
long? 

"  Yes,  soldiers,  the  order  for  a  charge  will  be  the  signal  for  victory.  In 
that  moment  your  enemy  will  be  seen  flying  in  every  direction  before  you. 
But  in  the  moment  of  action  coolness  and  deliberation  must  be  regarded ; 
your  fires  made  with  precision  and  aim  ;  and  when  ordered  to  charge  with 
the  bayonet,  you  must  proceed  to  the  assault  with  a  quick  and  firm  step, 
without  trepidation  or  alarm.  Then  shall  you  behold  the  completion  of 
your  hopes  in  the  discomfiture  of  your  enemy.  Your  General,  whose  duty, 
as  well  as  inclination,  is  to  watch  over  your  safety,  will  not,  to  gratify  any 
wishes  of  his  own,  rush  you  unnecessarily  into  danger.  He  knows,  how 
ever,  that  it  is  not  in  assailing  an  enemy  that  men  are  destroyed ;  it  is 
when  retreating  and  in  confusion.  Aware  of  this,  he  will  be  prompted  as 
much  by  a  regard  for  your  lives  as  your  honor.  He  laments  that  he  has 
been  compelled,  even  incidentally,  to  hint  at  a  retreat  when  speaking  to 
freemen  and  to  soldiers.  Never  until  you  forget  all  that  is  due  to  your 
selves  and  your  country,  will  you  have  any  practical  understanding  of  that 
word.  Shall  an  enemy,  wholly  unacquainted  with  military  evolution,  and 
who  rely  more  for  victory  on  their  grim  visages  and  hideous  yells,  than 
upon  their  bravery  or  their  weapons — shall  such  an  enemy  ever  drive  be- 


1813.]     GENERAL  COFFEE'S   BATTLE.       435 

fore  them  the  well-trained  youths  of  our  country,  whose  bosoms  pant  for 
glory,  and  a  desire  to  avenge  the  wrongs  they  have  received  ?  Your  Gen 
eral  will  not  live  to  behold  such  a  spectacle ;  rather  would  he  rash  into  the 
thickest  of  the  enemy,  and  submit  himself  to  their  scalping  knives.  But  he 
has  no  fears  of  such  a  result.  He  knows  the  valor  of  the  men  he  com 
mands,  and  how  certainly  that  valor,  regulated  as  it  will  be,  will  lead  to 
victory.  With  his  soldiers  he  will  face  all  dangers,  and  with  them  partici 
pate  in  the  glory  of  conquest." 


CHAPTER    XXXIX. 

GENERAL   COFFEE'S   BATTLE. 

JOHN  COFFEE,  as  one  of  his  friends  observed  to  me,  was 
a  great  soldier  without  knowing  it.  So  the  world  never  knew 
it.  He  was  a  giant  in  stature  and  nobly  proportioned  ;  in 
demeanor  taciturn  and  totally  void  of  pretense  :  a  man  to 
do  his  duty,  and  let  any  one  else  have  the  glory  of  it  who 
wanted  that  airy  commodity.  The  first  in  the  field,  he  had 
been  now  a  month  in  the  saddle,  leading  his  horsemen  up 
and  down  the  country,  doing  what  he  could  to  keep  the  foe 
from  the  frontier,  and  the  Wolf  from  the  Manger.  He  had 
not  slain  an  Indian :  but  his  presence  had  dispelled  alarm, 
and  his  swift  gallopings  to  and  fro  had  given  every  one, 
friend  and  foe,  the  idea  that  something  energetic  was  going 
forward.  To  his  sick  general  he  had  been  an  arm  of  strength, 
when  he  most  needed  it.  Promoted  now,  most  justly  and  with 
the  applause  of  the  whole  army,  to  the  rank  of  brigadier 
general,  it  was  his  well-deserved  good  fortune  to  gain  over  the 
savage  Creeks  the  first  signal  success  of  the  war. 

Leaving  Fort  Deposit  on  the  25th  of  October,  Jackson 
marched  southward  into  the  enemy's  country  as  fast  as  the 
state  of  his  commissariat  permitted  ;  halting  when  his  corn 
quite  gave  out ;  marching  again  when  he  procured  a  day's 
supply  ;  sending  out  detachments  to  burn  villages  and  find 


436  LIFE     OF     ANDEEW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

hidden  stores  ;  writing  letter  after  letter,  imploring  succor 
from  the  settlements  ;  always  resolute,  always  in  an  agony 
of  suspense.  On  one  of  these  days,  Colonel  Dyer,  who  had 
been  sent  out  with  a  detachment  of  two  hundred  men,  re 
turned  to  camp  with  twenty-nine  prisoners  and  a  considerable 
supply  of  corn,  the  spoils  of  a  burnt  village.  Other  slight 
successes  on  the  march  served  to  keep  the  men  in  good  spirits, 
but  were  not  sufficient  to  lift  for  more  than  a  moment  the 
load  of  care  that  rested  upon  the  heart  of  the  General.  A 
week  brought  the  whole  force,  intact,  to  the  banks  of  the 
Coosa,  within  a  few  miles  of  the  Ten  Islands,  near  which,  at 
a  town  called  Talluschatches,  it  was  now  known,  a  large 
body  of  the  Indians  had  assembled. 

Talluschatches  was  thirteen  miles  from  General  Jackson's 
camp.  On  the  2d  of  November  came  the  welcome  order  to 
General  Coffee,  to  march  with  a  thousand  mounted  men  to 
destroy  this  town.  Late  in  the  same  day,  the  detachment 
were  on  the  trail,  accompanied  by  a  body  of  friendly  Creeks, 
wearing  white  feathers  and  white  deers'  tails,  to  distinguish 
them  from  their  hostile  brethren.  The  next  morning's  sun 
shone  upon  Coffee  and  his  men  preparing  to  assault  the  town. 
What  followed,  let  the  brave  General  himself  relate. 

"  I  arrived,"  wrote  General  Coffee  in  his  official  report 
to  Jackson,  "  within  one  mile  and  a  half  of  the  town  on  the 
morning  of  the  3d,  at  which  place  I  divided  my  detachment 
into  two  columns,  the  right  composed  of  the  cavalry  com 
manded  by  Colonel  Allcorn,  to  cross  over  a  large  creek  that 
lay  between  us  and  the  towns  ;  the  left  column  was  of  the 
mounted  riflemen,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Cannon, 
with  whom  I  marched  myself.  Colonel  Allcorn  was  ordered 
to  march  up  on  the  right,  and  encircle  one  half  of  the  town, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  left  would  form  a  half  circle  on  the 
left,  and  unite  the  head  of  the  columns  in  front  of  the  town — 
all  of  which  was  performed  as  I  could  wish.  When  I  arrived 
within  half  a  mile  of  the  town,  the  drums  of  the  enemy  began 
to  beat,  mingled  with  their  savage  yells,  preparing  for  action. 
It  was  after  sunrise  an  hour  when  the  action  was  brought  on 


1813.]  GENERAL    COFFEE'S     BATTLE.  437 

by  Captain  Hammond  and  Lieutenant  Patterson's  companies, 
who  had  gone  on  within  the  circle  of  alignment,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  drawing  out  the  enemy  from  their  buildings  ;  which 
had  the  most  happy  effect.  As  soon  as  Captain  Hammond 
exhibited  his  front  in  view  of  the  town,  (which  stood  in  an 
open  woodland,)  and  gave  a  few  scattering  shot,  the  enemy 
formed  and  made  a  violent  charge  on  him  ;  he  gave  way  as 
they  advanced,  until  they  met  our  right  column,  which  gave 
them  a  general  fire  and  then  charged.  This  changed  the  di 
rection  of  charge  completely.  The  enemy  retreated  firing, 
until  they  got  around,  and  in  their  buildings,  where  they 
made  all  the  resistance  that  an  overpowered  soldier  could  do. 
They  fought  as  long  as  one  existed ;  but  their  destruction 
was  very  soon  completed.  Our  men  rushed  up  to  the  doors 
of  the  houses,  and  in  a  few  minutes  killed  the  last  warrior 
of  them.  The  enemy  fought  with  savage  fury,  and  met 
death  with  all  its  horrors,  without  shrinking  or  complaining : 
not  one  asked  to  be  spared,  but  fought  as  long  as  they  could 
stand  or  sit.  In  consequence  of  their  flying  to  their  houses 
and  mixing  with  the  families,  our  men,  in  killing  the  males, 
without  intention,  killed  and  wounded  a  few  of  the  squaws 
and  children,  which  was  regretted  by  every  officer  and  sol 
dier  of  the  detachment,  but  which  could  not  be  avoided. 

"  The  number  of  the  enemy  killed  was  one  hundred  and 
eighty-six,  that  were  counted,  and  a  number  of  others  that 
were  killed  in  the  weeds,  not  found.  I  think  the  calculation 
a  reasonable  one,  to  say  two  hundred  of  them  were  killed,  and 
eighty-four  prisoners  of  women  and  children  were  taken.  Not 
one  of  the  warriors  escaped  to  carry  the  news — a  circumstance 
unknown  heretofore. 

"  We  lost  five  men  killed,  and  forty-one  wounded,  none 
mortally,  the  greater  part  slightly  ;  a  number  with  arrows. 
This  appears  to  form  a  very  principal  part  of  the  enemy's 
arms  for  warfare,  every  man  having  a  bow  with  a  bundle  of 
arrows,  which  is  used  after  the  first  fire  with  the  gun,  until  a 
leisure  time  for  loading  offers. 

"  It  is  with  pleasure  I  say  that  our  men  acted  with  de- 


438  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

liberation  and  firmness.  Notwithstanding  our  numbers  were 
superior  to  that  of  the  enemy,  it  was  a  circumstance  to  us 
unknown  ;  and  from  the  parade  of  the  enemy,  we  had  every 
reason  to  suppose  them  our  equals  in  number  ;  but  there  ap 
peared  no  visible  traces  of  alarm  in  any,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
all  appeared  cool  and  determined,  and  no  doubt  when  they 
face  a  foe  of  their  own  or  superior  number,  they  will  show 
the  same  courage  as  on  this  occasion." 

The  Indians,  in  this  battle,  as  in  all  the  battles  of  the 
Creek  war,  fought  with  religious  frenzy.  Tecumseh  knew 
well  the  Indian  character  when  he  adopted  his  prophet- 
brother's  fantastic  devices.  Every  tribe  and  war  party  had 
its  prophet,  who  really  seems  to  have  made  himself  believe 
that  he  and  his  followers  would  be  invulnerable  by  American 
bullets.  The  prophet  of  Talluschatches,  it  is  related,  had 
preached  this  doctrine  with  great  effect.  When  the  fire 
was  hottest,  he  sprang  to  the  roof  of  one  of  the  houses  and 
harangued  the  contending  warriors  with  loud  outcries  and 
vehement  gesticulation.  "  The  Great  Spirit,"  he  cried,  "  was 
on  the  side  of  the  red  men  and  their  British  allies.  Innumer 
able  spirits  filled  the  air,  commissioned  by  the  Great  Spirit  to 
catch  the  flying  bullets  of  the  Americans.  Look  at  me,  on 
the  top  of  a  house  in  full  view  of  the  Americans,  and  I  am 
still  unharmed  !"  He  soon  attracted  attention,  however,  when 
an  American  bullet  silenced  him  for  ever,  and  he  tumbled 
headlong  to  the  ground.* 

On  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  General  Coffee,  having 
destroyed  the  town  and  buried  his  dead,  led  his  victorious 
troops  back  to  Jackson's  camp,  where  he  received  from  his 
General  and  the  rest  of  the  army  the  welcome  that  brave 
men  give  to  brave  men  returning  from  triumph.  A  brief  dis 
patch  from  General  Jackson  to  Governor  Blount,  written  on 
the  4th  of  November,  and  soon  published  in  all  newspapers, 
was  the  first  of  the  long  series  of  dispatches  that  associated 
his  name  with  victory : — 

"We  have  retaliated  for  the  destruction  of  Fort  Mims. 

*  Claiborne's  Notes. 


1813.]  GENERAL    COFFEE'S    BATTLE.  439 

On  the  2d,  I  detached  General  Coffee,  with  a  part  of  his 
brigade  of  cavalry  and  mounted  riflemen,  to  destroy  Tallu- 
shatches,  where  a  considerable  force  of  the  hostile  Creeks  was 
concentrated.  The  General  executed  this  in  style.  An  hun 
dred  and  eighty-six  of  the  enemy  were  found  dead  on  the 
field,  and  about  eighty  taken  prisoners,  forty  of  whom  have 
been  brought  here.  In  the  number  left  there  is  a  sufficiency  but 
slightly  wounded  to  take  care  of  those  who  are  badly.  I  have 
to  regret  that  five  of  my  brave  fellows  have  been  killed,  and 
about  thirty  wounded ;  some  badly,  but  none  I  hope  mor 
tally.  Both  officers  and  men  behaved  with  the  utmost 
bravery  and  deliberation.  Captains  Smith,  Bradley,  and 
Winston  are  wounded,  all  slightly.  No  officer  is  killed.  So 
soon  as  General  Coffee  makes  his  report  I  shall  enclose  it.  If 
we  had  a  sufficient  supply  of  provisions  we  should  in  a  very 
short  time  accomplish  the  object  of  the  expedition." 

Along  with  the  returning  horsemen,  joyful  with  their  tri 
umph,  came  into  camp  a  sorrowful  procession  of  prisoners,  all 
women  or  children,  all  widows  or  fatherless,  all  helpless  and  des 
titute.  They  were  humanely  cared  for  by  the  troops,  and  soon 
after  sent  to  the  settlements  for  maintenance  during  the  war. 

On  the  bloody  field  of  Talluschatches  was  found  a  slain 
mother  still  embracing  her  living  infant.  The  child  was 
brought  into  camp  with  the  other  prisoners,  and  Jackson, 
anxious  to  save  it,  endeavored  to  induce  some  of  the  Indian 
women  to  give  it  nourishment.  "  No,"  said  they,  "  all  his 
relations  are  dead,  kill  him  too."  This  reply  appealed  to  the 
heart  of  the  General.  He  caused  the  child  to  be  taken  to  his 
own  tent,  where,  among  the  few  remaining  stores,  was  found  a 
little  brown  sugar.  This  mingled  with  water,  served  to  keep 
the  child  alive  until  it  could  be  sent  to  Huntsville,  where  it  was 
nursed  at  Jackson's  expense  until  the  end  of  the  campaign, 
and  then  taken  to  the  Hermitage.  Mrs.  Jackson  received  it 
cordially  ;  and  the  boy  grew  up  in  the  family,  treated  by  the 
General  and  his  kind  wife  as  a  son  and  a  favorite.  Lincoyer 
was  the  name  given  him  by  the  General.  He  grew  to^  be  a 
finely  formed  and  robust  youth,  and  received  the  education 


440  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

usually  given  to  the  planters'  sons  in  the  neighborhood.  Yet, 
it  appears,  he  remained  an  Indian  to  the  last,  delighting  to 
roam  the  fields  and  woods,  and  decorate  his  hair  and  clothes 
with  gay  feathers,  and  given  to  strong  yearnings  for  his  native 
wilds.  At  the  proper  age,  the  General,  wishing  to  complete 
his  good  work  by  giving  him  the  means  of  independence,  took 
him  among  the  shops  of  Nashville,  and  asked  him  to  choose 
the  trade  he  would  learn.  He  chose  the  very  business  at 
which  Jackson  himself  had  tried  his  youthful  hand — harness 
making.  The  apprentice  now  spent  the  working  days  in  the 
shop  at  Nashville,  going  to  the  Hermitage  on  Sunday  even 
ings,  and  returning  on  Monday  morning,  generally  riding  one 
of  the  General's  horses.  The  work  did  not  agree  with  him, 
and  he  came  home  sick  to  the  Hermitage,  to  leave  it  no  more. 
His  disease  proved  to  be  consumption.  He  was  nursed  with 
care  and  solicitude  by  good  Aunt  Kachel,  but  he  sank  rapidly, 
and  died  before  he  had  reached  his  seventeenth  year.  The 
General  sincerely  mourned  his  loss,  and  often  spoke  of  Lin- 
coyer  as  a  parent  speaks  of  a  lost  child. 

A  lady  of  Nashville  tells  me,  that  when,  as  a  little  girl, 
she  used  to  visit  the  Hermitage  with  her  parents,  this  Indian 
boy  was  her  terror  ;  as  it  was  his  delight  to  spring  out  upon 
the  other  children  from  some  ambush  about  the  house,  and 
frighten  them  with  loud  yells  and  horrible  grimaces. 


CHAPTER     XL. 

BATTLE     OF     TALLADEGA. 

IT  was  General  Jackson's  turn  next.  Thirty  miles  from 
his  encampment  on  the  Coosa  stood  a  small  fort,  into 
which,  as  before  intimated,  a  party  of  a  hundred  and 
fifty-four  friendly  Creeks  had  fled  for  safety.  The  site 
of  this  fort  is  now  covered  by  part  of  the  town  of  Talla- 


1813.]  BATTLE     OF     TALLADEGA.  441 

dega,  the  capital  of  Talladega  county,  Alabama,  a  thriving 
place  of  two  thousand  inhabitants,  situated  on  a  branch  of 
the  Coosa,  in  the  midst  of  beautiful  mountain  scenery.  This 
region  was,  at  the  time  of  which  we  are  now  writing,  liter 
ally  a  howling  wilderness  ;  for,  while  General  Coffee  was  re 
turning  in  triumph  from  Talluschatchee,  more  than  a  thou 
sand  hostile  Creeks  suddenly  surrounded  the  friendly  fort  and 
invested  it  so  completely  that  not  a  man  could  escape.  With 
only  a  small  supply  of  corn,  and  scarcely  any  water,  outnum 
bered  seven  to  one,  and  unable  to  send  intelligence  of  their 
situation,  the  inmates  of  the  fort  seemed  doomed  to  massacre. 
The  assailants  appear  to  have  comported  themselves  on  this 
occasion  in  the  manner  of  a  cat  sure  of  her  mouse.  They 
whooped  and  sported  around  their  prey,  waiting  for  terror  or 
starvation  to  save  them  the  trouble  of  conquest. 

Some  days  passed.  The  sufferings  of  the  beleaguered 
Indians  from  thirst  began  to  be  intolerable.  A  noted  chief 
of  the  party  resolved  upon  making  one  desperate  effort  to 
escape  and  carry  the  news  to  Jackson's  camp.  Enveloping 
himself  in  the  skin  of  a  large  hog,  with  the  head  and  feet  at 
tached,  he  left  the  fort,  and  went  about  rooting  and  grunt 
ing,  gradually  working  his  way  through  the  hostile  host  until 
he  was  beyond  the  reach  of  their  arrows.  Then,  throwing 
off  his  disguise,  he  fled  with  the  swiftness  of  the  wind. 
Not  knowing  precisely  where  General  Jackson  was,  he  did 
not  reach  the  camp  till  late  in  the  evening  of  the  next 
day,  when  he  came  in,  breathless  and  exhausted,  and  told  his 
story.* 

This  was  on  the  7th  of  November,  four  days  after  the 
affair  of  Talluschatches,  during  which  the  General  and  the 
troops  had  been  busy  in  erecting  a  fortification,  or  depot, 
which  was  named  Fort  Strother.  The.  army  was  still,  as  it 
had  been  from  the  beginning  of  the  campaign,  only  a  few 
days  removed  from  starvation.  Contractors  had  been  dis 
missed,  new  ones  appointed,  more  imploring  letters  written, 

*  Pickett's  History  of  Alabama. 


442  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

and  every  conceivable  effort  made,  and  yet  no  reliable  system 
had  been  devised  to  overcome  the  inherent  difficulties  of  the 
work.  To  the  General's  other  embarrassments  was  now  added 
the  care  of  a  considerable  number  of  wounded  and  sick,  many 
of  whom  could  not  be  moved.  There  was  one  encouraging 
circumstance,  however.  The  troops  from  East  Tennessee, 
under  Major  General  Cocke,  and  Brigadier  General  White, 
had,  at  length,  reached  the  vicinity,  and  a  force  under  gen 
eral  White  was  expected  to  join  the  next  day,  and  to  bring 
with  them  some  supplies.  So  General  White  himself  had 
written.  Jackson,  at  the  moment  when  the  messenger  from 
the  beleaguered  fort  arrived,  was  in  his  tent,  closing  his  reply 
to  the  coming  general,  to  whom  he  imparted  the  new  intelli 
gence  and  announced  his  intentions  with  regard  to  it,  add 
ing  that  he  depended  upon  him  (General  White)  to  protect 
his  camp  during  his  own  absence  from  it. 

Kelying,  with  the  utmost  possible  confidence,  upon  Gen- 
eral  White's  arrival,  Jackson,  with  his  usual  dashing  prompt 
itude,  issued  orders  for  his  whole  division,  except  a  few  men 
to  guard  the  post  and  attend  the  sick,  to  prepare  for  march 
ing  that  very  evening.  He  had  taken  the  resolution  to  rush 
to  the  relief  of  the  friendly  Creeks,  justly  supposing  that  the 
massacre  of  such  a  body,  within  so  short  a  distance  of  an 
American  army,  would  intimidate  all  the  friendly  Indians 
and  tend  to  unite  the  southern  tribes,  as  one  man,  against 
the  United  States. 

At  one  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  November  the  8th,  eight 
hundred  horsemen  and  twelve  hundred  foot,  under  command 
of  General  Jackson,  stood  on  the  bank  of  the  Coosa,  one  mile 
above  Fort  Strother,  ready  to  cross.  The  river  was  wide  but 
fordable  for  horsemen.  Each  of  the  mounted  men  taking 
behind  him  one  of  the  infantry,  rode  across  the  river  and  then 
returned  for  another.  This  operation  consumed  so  long  a 
time  that  it.^as  nearly  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  before 
the  whole  force  was  drawn  up  on  the  opposite  bank  prepared 
to  move.  A  long  and  weary  march  through  a  country  wild 
and  uninhabited  brought  them,  about  sunset,  within  six  miles 


1813.]  BATTLE    OF     TALLADEGA.  443 

of  Talladega.  There  the  General  thought  it  best  to  halt 
and  give  repose  to  the  troops,  taking  precautions  to  conceal 
his  presence  from  the  enemy. 

There  was  no  repose  for  the  General  that  night.  Till 
late  in  the  evening  he  remained  awake,  receiving  reports  from 
the  spies  sent  out  to  reconnoiter  the  enemy's  position,  and 
making  arrangements  for  the  morrow's  work.  At  midnight, 
an  Indian  came  into  the  camp  with  a  dispatch  from  General 
White  announcing,  to  Jackson's  inexpressible  astonishment 
and  dismay,  that,  in  consequence  of  positive  orders  from 
General  Cocke,  he  would  not  be  able  to  protect  Fort  Strother, 
but  must  return  and  rejoin  his  general  immediately.  No 
other  explanation  was  given.  Jackson  was  in  sore  perplexity. 
To  go  forward  was  to  leave  the  sick  and  wounded  at  Fort 
Strother  to  the  mercy  of  any  strolling  party  of  savages.  To 
retreat  would  bring  certain  destruction  upon  the  friendly 
Creeks,  and,  probably,  the  whole  besieging  force  upon  his  own 
rear.  In  this  painful  dilemma,  he  resolved  upon  the  boldest 
measures,  and  the  wisest — to  strike  the  foe  in  his  front  at 
the  dawn  of  day,  and,  having  delivered  the  inmates  of  the 
fort,  hasten  from  the  battle  field  to  the  protection  of  Fort 
Strother. 

Before  four  in  the  morning  the  army  was  in  full  march 
toward  the  enemy. 

"At  sunrise,"  said  the  General  in  his  dispatch,  "we  came 
within  half  a  mile  of  them,  and  having  formed  my  men,  I 
moved  on  in  battle  order.  The  infantry  were  in  three  lines 
— the  militia  on  the  left,  and  the  volunteers  on  the  right. 
The  cavalry  formed  the  two  extreme  wings,  and  were  ordered 
to  advance  in  a  curve,  keeping  their  rear  connected  with  the 
advance  of  their  infantry  lines,  and  enclose  the  enemy  in  a 
circle.  The  advanced  guard,  whom  I  sent  forward  to  bring 
on  the  engagement,  met  the  attack  of  the  enemy  with  great 
intrepidity  ;  and  having  poured  upon  them  four  or  five  very 
galling  rounds,  fell  back,  as  they  had  been  previously  ordered, 
to  the  main  army.  The  enemy  pursued,  and  the  front  line 
was  now  ordered  to  advance  and  meet  him  ;  but  owing  to 


444  LIFE    OF     ANDREW    JACKSON.  [1813. 

some  misunderstanding,  a  few  companies  of  militia,  who  com 
posed  a  part  of  it,  commenced  a  retreat.  At  this  moment  a 
corps  of  cavalry,  commanded  by  Lieutenant  Colonel  Dyer, 
which  I  had  kept  as  a  reserve,  was  ordered  to  dismount,  and 
fill  up  the  vacancy  occasioned  by  the  retreat.  This  order  was 
executed  with  a  great  deal  of  promptitude  and  eiFect.  The 
militia,  seeing  this,  speedily  rallied ;  and  the  fire  became 
general  along  the  front  line,  and  on  that  part  of  the  wings 
which  was  contiguous.  The  enemy,  unable  to  stand  it,  began 
to  retreat  ;  but  were  met  at  every  turn,  and  repulsed  in  every 
direction.  The  right  wing  chased  them,  with  a  most  destruc 
tive  fire,  to  the  mountains,  a  distance  of  about  three  miles — 
and  had  I  not  been  compelled  by  the  faux  pas  of  the  militia 
in  the  outset  of  the  battle,  to  dismount  my  reserve,  I  believe 
not  a  man  of  them  would  have  escaped.  The  victory,  how 
ever,  was  very  decisive — two  hundred  and  ninety  of  the  enemy 
were  left  dead — and  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  many  more 
were  killed  who  were  not  found.  Wherever  they  ran,  they  left 
behind  traces  of  blood  ;  and  it  is  believed  that  very  few  will 
return  to  their  villages  in  as  sound  a  condition  as  they  left 
them.  In  the  engagement,  we  lost  fifteen  killed,  and  eighty- 
five  wounded — two  of  them  have  since  died.  All  the  officers 
acted  with  the  utmost  bravery,  and  so  did  all  the  privates, 
except  that  part  of  the  militia  who  retreated  at  the  com 
mencement  of  the  battle  ;  and  they  hastened  to  atone  for 
their  error.  Taking  the  whole  together,  they  have  realized 
the  high  expectations  I  had  formed  of  them,  and  have  fairly 
entitled  themselves  to  the  gratitude  of  their  country/' 

A  private  letter  of  General  Coffee's  to  Captain  Donelson 
adds  a  few  particulars  :  "  We  had  nearly  surrounded  the 
Indians,"  wrote  Coffee,  "  when  they  broke  through  an  open 
ing  in  the  lines  that  had  not  been  closed,  through  which  many 
of  them  escaped.  We  pursued  them  three  or  four  miles,  kill 
ing  and  wounding  as  they  ran.  We  have  counted  two  hun 
dred  and  ninety-nine  Indians  dead  on  the  ground,  and  it  is 
believed  that  many  have  not  been  found  that  were  killed 
dead  ;  but  the  battle  ground  was  so  very  large  we  had  not 


1813.]  BATTLE     OF     TALLADEGA.  445 

time  to  hunt  them  up.  It  is  believed  that  very  few  got  clear 
without  a  wound.  Thus  the  two  battles  have  certainly  left 
five  hundred  of  the  choice  warriors  of  the  enemy  dead  on  the 
ground,  besides  many  others  not  found,  and  as  many  others 
must  be  wounded  ;  which  leaves  the  forces  of  the  Creek  na 
tion  a  thousand  men  weaker  than  when  they  began  the  pres 
ent  war.  The  force  of  the  enemy  was  a  little  upwards  of  one 
thousand  warriors,  picked  men  sent  forward  to  destroy  our 
army.  Although  our  detachment  was  about  double  their 
numbers,  we  never  had  more  than  their  own  numbers  engaged 
with  them  at  the  same  time.  But  rest  assured  that  they  never 
will  stand  an  opposing  force  of  their  equals  on  fair  ground. 
They  are  certainly  a  desperate  enemy  when  they  have  con 
quered  ;  but  they  are  very  soon  put  to  flight  by  a  resolute 

stand  or  charge We  lost  in  the  battle  fifteen  men 

killed  and  eighty-six  wounded,  the  most  of  them  very  slightly. 
Some  few  will  die,  but  very  few.  This  disproportion  is  as 
great  as  we  could  possibly  have  expected — as  battles  can  not 
be  fought  without  losing  men.  .•"".•  .  .  I  mentioned  in 
the  first  of  this  that  it  was  the  first  time  I  had  written  you  ; 
but  I  recollect  since  of  writing  you  before.  Our  crowd  of 
business  is  such,  that  I  don't  always  recollect  what  has  passed 
in  a  few  hours  after."* 

The  joy  of  the  rescued  Creeks  is  described  to  have  been  affect 
ing  in  the  extreme.  Besides  being  nearly  dead  from  thirst,  they 
were  anticipating  an  assault  that  very  day,  and  had  no  knowl 
edge  of  Jackson's  approach  until  they  heard  the  noise  of  the 
battle.  Fifteen  minutes  after  the  action  became  general,  the 
savages  were  flying  headlong  in  every  direction,  and  falling  fast 
under  the  swords  of  the  pursuing  troops.  The  delivered  Creeks 
ran  out  of  the  fort,  and,  having  appeased  their  raging  thirst, 
thronged  around  their  deliverer,  testifying  their  delight  and 
gratitude.  The  little  corn  that  they  could  spare  the  General 
bought  and  distributed  among  his  hungry  men  and  horses. 
He  had  left  Fort  Strother  with  only  provisions  for  little  more 

*  MSS.  of  Tennessee  Historical  Society. 
VOL.  i. — 29 


446  LIFE     OF     AN DUE W     JACKSON.  [1813. 

than  one  day,  and  the  supply  obtained  from  the  Creeks 
amounted  to  less  than  a  meal  for  his  victorious  army. 

The  dead  honorably  buried,  and  the  wounded  placed  in 
litters,  the  troops  marched  back  to  Fort  Strother  the  day 
after  the  battle.  They  arrived  tired  and  hungry,  yet  fondly 
hoping  that,  in  their  absence,  some  supplies  had  been  collected. 
Not  a  peck  of  meal,  not  a  pound  of  flesh  had  reached  the  fort; 
and  they  found  their  sick  and  wounded  comrades  as  hungry 
as  themselves.  It  was  a  bitter  moment.  The  General  was 
in  an  agony  of  disappointment  and  apprehension.  The  men, 
though  returning  from  victory,  murmured  ominously.  Until 
this  day,  the  General  and  his  staff  had  subsisted  upon  private 
stores  procured  and  transported  at  his  own  expense.  Before 
leaving  for  Talladega,  he  had  directed  the  surgeons  to  draw 
upon  these,  if  necessary,  for  the  maintenance  of  the  sick,  and 
upon  his  return,  he  found  that  all  had  been  consumed,  except 
a  few  pounds  of  biscuit.  These  were  immediately  distributed 
among  the  hungry  applicants,  not  one  being  reserved  for  the 
General.  Concealing  his  feelings,  and  assuming  a  cheerful  as 
pect,  he  went  among  the  men  and  endeavored  to  give  the  affair 
a  jocular  turn.  He  went  with  his  staff  to  the  slaughtering 
place  of  the  camp,  and  brought  away  from  the  refuse  there 
the  means  of  satisfying  his  appetite,  declaring  with  a  smiling 
face  that  tripe  was  a  savory  and  nutritious  article  of  food, 
and  that,  for  his  part,  he  desired  nothing  better.  For  several 
days  succeeding,  while  a  few  lean  cattle  were  the  only  sup 
port  of  the  army,  General  Jackson  and  his  military  family 
subsisted  upon  tripe,  without  bread  or  seasoning. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  an  oft-told  incident  occurred.  A 
soldier,  gaunt  and  woe-begone,  approached  the  General  one 
morning,  while  he  was  sitting  under  a  tree  eating,  and  begged 
for  some  food  as  he  said  he  was  nearly  starving.  "  It  has 
always  been  a  rule  with  me/'  replied  Jackson,  "  never  to  turn 
away  a  hungry  man  when  it  was  in  my  power  to  relieve  him, 
and  I  will  most  cheerfully  divide  with  you  what  I  have." 
Putting  his  hand  into  his  pocket,  he  drew  forth  a  few  acorns, 
saying,  "  This  is  the  best  and  only  fare  I  have."  Theaston- 


1813.]  BATTLE     OF     TALLADEGA.  447 

ished  man  did  not  neglect  to  narrate  the  circumstance  to  his 
comrades,  nor  did  they  fail  to  repeat  it  with  ever  new  ampli 
fication  and  variation.  It  appeared  in  the  newspapers,  in  a 
highly  dramatic  form,  thus  :  General  Jackson  invited  his 
officers  to  breakfast  with  him  in  his  marquee,  and  they  assem 
bled  in  keen  expectation  of  enjoying  the  usual  abundance  of 
a  Major  General's  table.  When  the  hour  arrived,  a  tray  of 
acorns  and  a  pitcher  of  water  were  brought  in.  "  Sit  down, 
gentlemen,"  said  the  General,  with  dignified  composure ; 
"  this  is  my  breakfast,  and  it  is  all  I  have  to  serve  you  with  ; 
but  a  soldier  never  despairs.  Heaven  will  bless  our  cause, 
will  preserve  us  from  famine,  and.  return  us  home  CONQUER 
ORS  !"  Filled  with  admiration  the  officers  forgot  their  disap- 
pointrnentj  and  returned,  after  the  meal,  to  their  quarters, 
more  devoted  to  the  General  than  ever.  Thus,  campaign 
anecdotes  originate. 

Jackson  soon  saw  the  effect  of  his  brilliant  success  at 
Talladega.  The  Hillabee  warriors,  who  had  been  defeated  in 
that  battle,  at  once  sent  a  messenger  to  Fort  Strother  to  sue 
for  peace.  Jackson's  reply  was  prompt  and  characteristic. 
His  government,  he  said,  had  taken  up  arms  to  avenge  the 
most  gross  depredations,  and  to  bring  back  to  a  sense  of  duty 
a  people  to  whom  it  had  shown  the  utmost  kindness.  When 
those  objects  were  attained  the  war  would  cease,  but  not  till 
then.  "  Upon  those/'  he  continued,  "  who  are  disposed  to 
become  friendly,  I  neither  wish  nor  intend  to  make  war,  but 
they  must  afford  evidences  of  the  sincerity  of  their  profes 
sions  ;  the  prisoners  and  property  they  have  taken  from  us 
and  the  friendly  Creeks  must  be  restored  ;  the  instigators  of 
the  war,  and  the  murderers  of  our  citizens,  must  be  surren 
dered  ;  the  latter  must  and  will  be  made  to  feel  the  force  of 
our  resentment.  Long  shall  they  remember  Fort  Mims  in 
bitterness  and  tears." 

The  Hillabee  messenger,  who  was  an  old  Scotchman,  long 
domesticated  among  the  Indians,  departed  with  Jackson's 
reply.  It  was  never  delivered.  Before  the  message  reached 
the  Hillabees  an  event  occurred  which  banished  from  their 


448  LIFE     OF     ANDKEW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

minds  all  thought  of  peace,  changing  them  from  suppliants 
for  pardon  into  enemies  the  most  resolute  and  deadly  of  all 
the  Indians  in  the  southern  country. 

Another  trifling,  hut  interesting  incident  of  the  battle  of 
Talladega,  must  not  be  overlooked.  It  afforded  General 
Jackson  an  opportunity  of  making  a  very  suitable  return  to 
the  ladies  of  East  Tennessee  for  their  present  of  a  banner  to 
the  volunteers,  on  their  return  from  Natchez.  It  is  not  every 
man  who,  in  such  circumstances,  would  think  of  doing  a 
graceful  thing  of  the  kind.  The  following  note,  dated  Novem 
ber  24th,  explains  itself : — 

"  General  Andrew  Jackson,  with  compliments  to  Governor 
Blount,  requests  him  to  inform  the  ladies  of  East  Tennessee, 
who  presented  the  colors  to  the  Tennessee  volunteers,  that 
Captain  Deaderich,  who,  with  Captain  Bledsoe's  and  Captain 
Caperton's  companies,  under  the  direction  of  Major  Carroll, 
were  sent  to  bring  on  the  attack,  and  lead  the  enemy  by  a 
regular  retreat  on  the  strongest  point  of  my  infantry,  w^ent 
into  the  action  with  their  colors  tied  round  him,  and  that  they 
were  well  supported.  And,  in  return,  I  send  you  a  stand  of 
colors  (although  not  of  such  elegant  stuff  or  magnificent 
needle-work)  taken  by  one  of  the  volunteers,  which  I  beg 
you  to  present  to  them  as  the  only  mark  of  gratitude  the  vol 
unteers  have  it  in  their  power  to  make.  With  his  own  hand 
he  slayed  the  bearer.  They  will  be  handed  by  Mr.  Fletcher, 
who  I  send  for  that  purpose/' 


CHAPTER    XLI. 

THE  MISFORTUNES  OF  GENERAL  JOHN  COCKE. 

A  SCAPEGOAT  is  one  of  the  necessities  of  balked  human 
nature.  General  John  Cocke,  of  East  Tennessee,  who  had 
conferred  so  amicably  with  Governor  Blount  and  General 
Jackson  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  was  the  individual 


1813.]         GENERAL     COCKERS     MISFORTUNES.  449 

destined  to  serve  in  the  capacity  of  scapegoat  to  the  embar 
rassments  and  calamities  of  this  campaign.  He  stands 
charged  in  all  the  narratives  of  the  Creek  war,  first,  with 
neglecting  his  duty  with  regard  to  the  supply  of  General 
Jackson's  division,  and,  secondly,  with  frustrating  General 
Jackson's  plans,  through  an  unworthy  ambition  of  gaining 
separate  advantages  over  the  enemy.  A  court  martial  acquit 
ted  him  of  these  charges.  He  has  himself*  given  the  public 
a  statement  of  his  conduct  in  the  campaign,  which,  with  the 
evidence  subjoined,  completely  exonerates  him.  It  is  a 
pleasure  to  assist  in  setting  an  honorable  man  right  before 
his  countrymen,  and  I  gladly  avail  myself  of  General  Cocke's 
narrative  in  this  place. 

"General  Jackson  and  myself,"  says  General  Cocke,  "were 
both  in  Nashville  when  intelligence  reached  that  place  of  the 
massacre  of  Fort  Minis.  This  intelligence  caused  the  deepest 
excitement  of  the  public  mind.  Governor  Blount  ordered  me 
forthwith  to  repair  to  my  division  and  raise  twenty-five  hun 
dred  men,  and  join  the  Georgia  troops  with  the  utmost  dispatch. 
At  his  instance  I  accompanied  him  to  the  room  of  General 
Jackson,  who  was  then  confined  in  consequence  of  wounds 
received  in  his  bloody  tragedy  with  Thomas  H.  and  Jesse 
Benton.  The  Governor  informed  him  of  the  order  he  had 
given  me,  and  of  his  purpose  of  making  an  order  upon  him 
for  a  like  number  of  men  from  his  division,  if  he  (General  J.) 
thought  he  would  be  able  to  take  the  command.  General 
Jackson  informed  the  Governor  that  his  wounds  were  im 
proving,  and  that  he  thought  he  would  be  able  to  take  the 
command  by  the  time  the  troops  could  be  raised.  General 
Jackson  then  asked  me  if  sufficient  supplies  could  be  raised 
in  East  Tennessee  for  both  commands.  I  replied  I  thought 
there  could  be.  He  then  told  me  he  would  take  it  as  a  great 
favor  if  I  would  make  a  requisition  on  McGhee,  the  con 
tractor  at  Knoxville,  for  supplies  for  his  army.  I  promised  to 
do  so,  and  he  gave  me  a  statement  as  to  the  amount  required. 

"At  the  instance  of  Governor  Blount,  I  remained  at 

*. National  Intelligencer,  October,  1852. 


450  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

Nashville  a  few  days,  until  the  Legislature  met  and  made  an 
appropriation  of  $200,000  to  furnish  supplies  for  the  troops 
ordered  into  service.  That  amount  was  subject  to  the  order 
of  General  Jackson,  and  not  one  dollar  of  which  ever  came 
to  my  hands  or  was  under  my  control.  I  immediately  re 
paired  to  my  division,  and  upon  my  arrival  at  Knoxville  1 
saw  McGhee,  the  contractor,  and  made  a  requisition  for  sup 
plies  for  my  own  command,  and  also  for  that  of  General 
Jackson,  as  I  had  promised  him  to  do. 

"  I  was  informed  by  the  contractor  that  he  would  have  no 
difficulty  in  procuring  the  supplies  according  to  the  requisi 
tion,  but  that  he  had  no  means  of  transporting  them  unless 
there  should  be  a  rise  in  the  river.  I  had  no  difficulty  in 
raising  the  number  of  troops  required. 

"  About  the  1st  of  October  I  rendezvoused  my  troops  at 
Knoxville,  and  they  mustered  into  service,  and  on  the  twelfth 
day  after  I  took  up  the  line  of  march.  I  encamped  with  my 
command  on  the  banks  of  the  Coosa,  which  was  the  dividing 
line  between  the  Cherokee  and  Creek  Indians,  where  I  was 
compelled  to  halt  for  want  of  provisions  for  my  own  com 
mand  ;  and  at  no  time  after  I  left  Knoxville  had  I  more 
than  five  days'  rations  for  my  army.  At  this  point  I  waited 
for  supplies  from  the  contractor,  but  owing  to  the  low  water 
they  did  not  arrive,  and  I  was  compelled  to  procure  supplies 
from  the  Cherokees  as  best  I  could.  General  White  joined 
me  with  his  brigade  in  a  starving  condition,  upon  the  second 
day  after  my  arrival  on  the  Coosa." 

It  thus  appears,  that  while  General  Jackson  was  anxiously 
looking  for  supplies  from  General  Cocke,  General  Cocke  him 
self  was  as  destitute  as  General  Jackson.  A  junction  of  the 
two  armies  would  have  had  the  sole  effect  of  doubling  Jack 
son's  embarrassments,  inasmuch  as  he  would  have  had  five 
thousand  men  to  feed  in  the  wilderness,  instead  of  twenty- 
five  hundred,  and  would  have  required  twenty  wagon  loads 
of  provisions  daily,  instead  of  ten.  General  Cocke  knew  this 
— knew  that  Jackson's  anxiety  for  a  junction  had  arisen  from 
an  expectation  that  the  East  Tennesseeans  would  bring  sup- 


1813.]         GENERAL     COCKERS     MISFORTUNES.  451 

plies  with,  them — did  not  know  that  Jackson's  dash  at  Tal- 
ladega  had  left  Fort  Strother  unprotected — did  not  know 
any  thing  about  the  Hillibees'  suing  for  peace,  and  Jackson's 
favorable  reply  to  them. 

Accordingly,  upon  the  arrival  of  General  Cocke  within 
three  days'  march  of  Jackson's  camp,  the  question  arose, 
whether  it  were  wise  to  continue  the  march  in  that  direction, 
and  add  twenty-five  hundred  hungry  men  to  twenty-five 
hundred  starving  men.  General  White  was  already  within  a 
few  miles  of  Jackson's  camp  when  the  question  was  decided 
at  General  Cocke's  head-quarters.  General  Cocke  at  once 
sent  a  dispatch  to  White,  ordering  his  immediate  return,  so 
that  the  whole  body  of  East  Tennessee  troops  could  act 
together.  "I  understood,"  wrote  Cocke  to  White,  "that 
General  Jackson  had  crossed  the  Coosa  and  had  an  engage 
ment  with  the  Creeks.  I  called  a  council  of  the  officers  here. 
I  stated  the  case — put  the  question,  i  Shall  we  follow  Gen 
eral  Jackson  ?'  which  was  decided  unanimously  in  the  nega 
tive.  The  next  question,  i  Shall  we  cross  the  Coosa  here, 
and  proceed  to  the  Creek  settlements  on  the  Tallapoosa  ?' 
which  was  unanimously  decided  in  the  affirmative.  These 
decisions  met  my  approbation.  I  want  the  East  Tennessee 
troops  together.  I  leave  it  to  your  discretion  which  side  of 
the  Coosa  you  come  up  ;  but  you  must  form  a  junction  with 
me.  It  is  the  unanimous  wish  of  the  officers  and  men  also. 
If  we  follow  General  Jackson's  army,  we  must  suffer  for  sup 
plies,  nor  can  we  expect  to  gain  a  victory.  Let  us,  then,  take 
a  direction  in  which  we  can  share  some  of  the  dangers  and 
glories  of  the  field." 

These  words  reached  General  White  on  the  same  day 
that  brought  to  him  General  Jackson's  urgent  order  to 
hasten  to  the  protection  of  Fort  Strother.  Which  should 
he  obey  ?  He  concluded  that  obedience  was  due  to  his  im 
mediate  superior,  General  Cocke,  the  Major  General  of  the 
division  to  which  his  brigade  belonged.  Accordingly,  he  sent 
to  General  Jackson  that  dispatch  which  caused  him  such 
astonishment  and  alarm  near  Talladega,  and  immediately 


452  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

hastened  to  rejoin  General  Cocke.  Whether,  in  doing  this, 
General  White  acted  in  strict  accordance  with  military  law, 
let  military  men  decide.  He  did  it,  and  the  consequences 
were  most  calamitous. 

General  Cocke  now  had  his  East  Tennesseeans  together, 
seventy  miles  from  Fort  Strother ;  too  far  to  afford  it  the 
instantaneous  succor  that  General  Jackson's  departure  had 
rendered  necessary.  "A  short  time  after,"  continues  General 
Cocke,  in  his  newspaper  narrative,  "I  received  reliable  intel 
ligence  that  the  famous  Bill  Scott,  who  commanded  the 
Creeks  at  the  battle  of  Talladega,  was  at  the  Hillibee  towns, 
about  one  hundred  miles  from  my  encampment,  and  that  so 
soon  as  he  recovered  from  his  wounds  it  was  his  purpose  to 
put  to  death  every  white  man  and  friendly  Indian  in  the  na 
tion.  I  immediately  dispatched  General  White  with  the 
mounted  troops  and  Cherokees  who  had  attached  themselves 
to  my  command,  with  only  three  days'  rations,  which  was  all 
we  could  spare,  to  attack  the  towns." 

General  White  performed  this  duty  but  too  well.  Totally 
unaware  of  the  state  of  feeling  among  the  Hillibees,  nay, 
supposing  them  to  be  inveterately  hostile,  he  marched  rapidly 
into  their  country,  burning  and  destroying.  On  his  way  he 
burnt  one  village  of  thirty  houses,  and  another  of  ninety- 
three.  The  principal  Hillibee  town,  whence  had  proceeded 
the  messenger  to  Jackson  asking  peace,  and  whither  that 
messenger  was  to  return  that  day,  General  White  surprised 
at  daybreak,  killed  sixty  warriors,  and  captured  two  hundred 
and  fifty  women  and  children.  Having  burnt  the  town,  he 
returned  to  General  Cocke,  supposing  that  he  had  done  the 
State  some  service. 

The  feelings  of  the  Hillibee  tribe  may  be  imagined.  This, 
then,  is  General  Jackson's  answer  to  our  humble  suit  !  Thus 
does  he  respond  to  friendly  overtures  !  They  never  knew 
General  Jackson's  innocence  of  this  deed.  From  that  time 
to  the  end  of  the  war,  it  was  observed,  that  the  IndiaA 
fought  with  greater  fury  and  persistence  than  before ;  for 
they  fought  with  the  blended  energy  of  hatred  and  despair. 


1813.]         GENERAL     COCKERS     MISFORTUNES.  453 

There  was  no  suing  for  peace,  no  asking  for  quarter.  To 
fight  as  long  as  they  could  stand,  and  as  much  longer  as  they 
could  sit  or  kneel,  and  then  as  long  as  they  had  strength  to 
shoot  an  arrow  or  pull  a  trigger — were  all  that  they  supposed 
remained  to  them  after  the  destruction  of  the  Hillibees. 

General  Jackson's  grief  and  rage  at  this  most  unfortunate 
affair  were  natural  and  justifiable.  Before  all  the  Indian 
world  he  stood  condemned  as  a  violator  of  his  written  word, 
as  a  man  capable  of  parleying  with  a  beaten  and  suppliant 
enemy  for  the  purpose  of  striking  him  an  exterminating  blow. 
The  effect,  too,  was  disastrous  in  many  ways.  It  discouraged 
the  friendly  Indians,  roused  the  submissive,  exasperated  the 
hostile,  turned  the  war  into  a  series  of  massacres,  and  pro 
longed  it  for  many  anxious  and  terrible  weeks.  What  with 
the  submission  of  the  Hillibees,  and  the  brilliant  successes, 
soon  after,  of  the  Georgia  troops  under  General  Floyd,  and 
the  victories  of  the  Louisiana  and  Mississippi  troops  under 
General  Claiborne,  the  war  would  probably  have  come  to  an 
end  with  the  end  of  the  year  1813,  if  this  new  element  of  de 
spair  had  not  been  infused  into  the  savage  mind. 

Upon  General  Cocke  descended  the  weight  of  General 
Jackson's  wrath  ;  though,  for  the  moment,  no  measures  were 
taken  against  him.  How  unconscious  of  wrong  General 
Cocke  was  in  this  business,  must  have  been  apparent  even  to 
Jackson  :  for  the  first  explanation  of  General  White's  con 
duct  that  he  received,  came  from  General  Cocke  himself,  in  a 
letter  written  three  days  after  White  had  been  dispatched 
upon  his  expedition  against  the  Hillibees.  "  I  entertain  the 
opinion,"  General  Cocke  wrote,  "that  to  make  the  present 
campaign  as  successful  as  it  ought  to  be,  it  is  essential  that 
the  whole  force  from  Tennessee  should  act  in  concert.  I 
have  dispatched  all  my  mounted  men,  whose  horses  were  fit 
for  duty,  on  the  Hillibee  towns,  to  destroy  them.  I  expect 
their  return  in  a  few  days.  I  send  the  bearer  to  you  for  the 
sake  of  intelligence  as  to  your  intended  operations,  and  for 
the  sake  of  assuring  you  that  I  will  most  heartily  agree  to 
any  plan  that  will  be  productive  of  the  most  good."  There 


454  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

is   no  intimation  here   of  an  ambition   to   gain  exclusive 
laurels. 

To  complete  the  story  of  General  Cocke's  misfortunes,  I 
append  the  remainder  of  his  narrative,  reserving  for  future 
chapters  the  requisite  details  of  the  events  to  which  he 
alludes. 

"  A  short  time  after  General  White  returned  I  received  a  letter  from 
General  Jackson,  inviting  me  to  join  him  with  my  command  upon  the  12th 
of  December,  at  Fort  Strother,  in  which  he  stated,  if  I  would  do  so,  and 
bring  with  me  all  the  provision  I  could  possibly  raise,  that  in  less  than  three 
weeks  we  could  put  an  end  to  the  Creek  war.  My  men  had  been  called 
into  service  for  three  months,  and  more  than  two  thirds  of  their  time  had 
then  expired.  I  called  my  command  together,  read  them  General  Jack 
son's  letter,  and  appealed  to  their  patriotism  and  love  of  country,  and  urged 
them  to  tender  their  services  as  long  as  it  might  be  necessary  to  close  the 
war.  The  whole  army,  with  very  few  exceptions,  agreed  to  do  so.  By  the 
return  of  the  General's  express  I  informed  him  of  what  I  had  done,  and 
that  it  would  afford  me  great  pleasure  to  meet  him  with  my  command  at 
the  time  and  place  indicated  in  his  dispatch.  I  sent  out  agents  to  scour 
the  Cherokee  nation  for  supplies,  and  hauled  over  all  the  flour  which  could 
be  procured  on  the  Tennessee  river.  On  the  12th  of  December,  the  day  in 
dicated,  I  reached  General  Jackson's  encampment,  with  a  noble  army  of 
more  than  two  thousand  men,  with  all  the  supplies  which  could  be  pro 
cured  ;  and,  instead  of  finding  an  army,  I  found  an  almost  deserted  camp. 
It  was  then  I  learned  for  the  first  time  of  the  difficulty  between  General 
Jackson  and  his  army.  I  was  informed  by  his  officers  that  they  had  been 
at  daggers'  points,  and  that  his  men  had  left  him  and  gone  home. 

"  On  the  second  day  after  I  reached  General  Jackson's  encampment, 
against  the  earnest  remonstrances  and  protestations  of  myself  and  army, 
he  discharged  all  the  men  under  my  command  except  Colonel  Lillard's  reg 
iment,  took  all  my  supplies,  and  ordered  me  to  repair  to  my  division  and 
raise  two  thousand  men  for  six  months'  service.  With  extreme  reluctance 
I  obeyed  him,  as  he  was  my  senior  officer  in  command,  and  with  a  heavy 
heart  I  returned  to  my  division  and  raised  and  mustered  into  service  the 
two  thousand  men  as  required,  and  these,  upon  the  17th  of  January  fol 
lowing,  left  Knoxville  under  the  command  of  Brigadier  General  Dough 
erty,  and  had  taken  up  their  line  of  march  to  join  General  Jackson,  as 
ordered  by  him.  And  yet  this  reverend  sir*  says  that  I  seemed  resolved  to 

*  The  writer  whose  assertions  called  forth  General  Cocke's  statement  in  the 
Intelligencer. 


1813,]        GENERAL     COCKE    S     MISFORTUNES.  455 

refuse  him  all  aid,  lest  he  might  eclipse  me  in  the  campaign !  Let  an  im 
partial  public  determine  from  the  truth  of  history  whether  or  not  I  could 
have  had  any  such  apprehensions.  A  little  calm  reflection  might,  it  seems, 

have  convinced  Mr. that  there  was  but  little  prospect  of  being  eclipsed 

by  a  general  who  was  in  so  deplorable  a  situation  as  I  found  General  Jack 
son  at  Fort  Strother. 

"  Upon  arriving  at  Kingston  with  my  second  detachment,  rny  men  saw 
from  the  Nashville  papers  that  the  troops  from  the  western  division,  under 
the  second  call  of  General  Jackson,  were  ordered  into  service  for  three 
months  only,  while  those  from  the  eastern  division  were  for  six  months. 
This  fact  caused  the  greatest  dissatisfaction  among  my  men.  I  overtook 
the  troops  at  the  Lookout  Mountain,  when  I  found  a  dissatisfaction  among 
the  troops  amounting  almost  to  mutiny.  They  declared  their  determina 
tion  to  return  home  at  the  end  of  three  months.  I  made  them  a  speech, 
in  which  I  told  them  that  if  they  left  the  army  without  any  honorable  dis 
charge  they  would  disgrace  themselves  and  families;  that  much  of  their 
time  had  already  expired,  and  for  all  the  good  they  could  do,  if  they  in 
tended  to  leave  at  the  end  of  three  months,  they  had  better  go  home  then, 
but  appealed  to  their  magnanimity  and  patriotism  to  go  on  like  brave  men 
and  good  soldiers,  and  serve  until  the  expiration  of  the  term  for  which 
they  were  ordered  into  service.  For  that  address,  at  the  instance  of  Gen 
eral  Jackson,  I  was  arrested  when  almost  in  sight  of  the  enemy's  country,  my 
sword  taken  from  me,  and  I  sent  to  Nashville  for  trial ! 

"  A  court  martial,  composed  of  my  bitterest  enemies  and  General  Jack 
son's  most  devoted  personal  friends,  was  called  to  sit  upon  my  trial.  Spe 
cifications  and  charges  involving  my  whole  conduct  as  an  officer  during  the 
entire  term  I  was  in  the  service  were  filed  against  me.  I  was  tried ;  all 
the  testimony  which  could  operate  to  my  prejudice  was  heard,  and,  after  a 
most  thorough  investigation,  /  was  not  only  acquitted  of  every  charge  and 
specification,  but  unanimously  acquitted  with  honor,  and  that  too  by  a  court 
composed  of  my  most  bitter  enemies.  In  the  meantime  the  campaign  had 
closed,  and  I  was  in  the  way  of  no  man's  ambition ;  and  of  course  could 
not  expect  to  eclipse  General  Jackson  in  that  campaign." 

General  Cocke  thought  proper  to  fortify  his  statement 
by  letters  from  gentlemen  who  served  under  his  command. 
These  letters  throw  some  light  upon  the  chronic  difficulty 
with  regard  to  provisions,  showing  that  the  cause  of  the  in 
sufficiency  was  not  the  neglect  of  contractors,  but  the  lowness 
of  the  streams,  and  the  absence  of  roads.  Mr.  B.  Tate  writes : 
"  I  was  a  volunteer  under  Generals  Cocke  and  White,  in  the 
Creek  campaign,  and  know  that  the  supplies  could  not  be 


456  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

furnished  as  soon  at  they  were  needed,  even  at  Fort  Arm 
strong,  as  General  Cocke  could  not  procure  necessary  sup 
plies  for  the  army  under  his  command,  owing  in  part  to 
there  being  no  roads  through  the  Indian  country,  and  the 
haste  with  which  we  were  dispatched  forward  into  the  Creek 
country.  And  as  to  General  White  refusing  to  march  his 
command  to  Fort  Strother,  I  know  of  no  such  refusal.  But 
I  do  know  that  General  White  marched  a  detachment  of 
mounted  men  to  the  Hillibee  towns,  in  the  Creek  nation;  and 
at  the  time  we  started  on  said  expedition  we  could  only  pro 
cure  three  days"  rations,  and  were  out  on  said  expedition  fif 
teen  days  with  only  three  days'  rations;  and  had  to  live  upon 
parched  corn,  when  we  could  get  it,  which  was  seldom,  the 
Indians  having  driven  off  or  killed  all  their  cattle.  And  when 
we  returned  to  Fort  Armstrong  our  horses  were  so  reduced  as 
to  be  entirely  unfit  for  service." 

Mr.  James  Cummings  testifies  :  "  At  the  commencement 
of  Creek  hostilities  General  Cocke  was  Major  General  of  the 
first  division  of  Tennessee  militia,  and  General  Jackson  of  the 
second ;  the  two  divisions  comprising  the  military  force  of  the 
State.  Both  these  officers,  with  the  forces  allotted  them  by 
the  general  and  State  governments,  by  different  routes  were 
soon  in  the  enemy's  country.  Those  who  have  practical 
knowledge  of  army  operations  will  not  be  surprised  that  on 
rushing  considerable  forces  into  an  enemy's  country  destitute 
of  carriage  roads,  and  that  enemy  seeming  to  have  acted  some 
what  on  the  principle  by  which  Kussia  thwarted  Bonaparte  in 
his  attempted  conquest  of  that  empire,  great  difficulties  would 
attend  the  provisioning  of  troops  so  circumstanced.  Such  was 
the  case  with  respect  to  the  troops  both  from  the  eastern  and 
western  portions  of  the  State,  and  consequently  great  suffering 
had  to  be  endured  by  the  men.  As  for  those  from  East  Tennes 
see,  they  were  sometimes  not  able  to  procure  even  corn  to  parch 
for  themselves  ;  while  for  their  horses  forage  was  out  of  the 
question,  a  consderable  portion  of  General  Cocke's  troops  be 
ing  horsemen.  Consequently  the  horses  soon  became  unfit  for 
service ;  and  though  great  exertions  were  made  to  induce  the 


1813.]  HUNGER     AND     MUTINY.  457 

commissariat  appointed  by  the  War  Department  to  forward 
supplies,  either  through  culpable  or  unavoidable  tardiness  his 
division  was  generally  but  very  scantily  supplied." 

A  remark  in  Mr.  Cummings'  letter,  that  General  Jackson 
was  influenced  by  jealousy  in  his  proceedings  against  General 
Oocke  is  certainly  erroneous.  It  is  only  common  justice  to 
Jackson  to  admit  that  in  all  his  campaigns  he  appears  not 
only  willing  but  strongly  desirous  that  his  officers  should 
receive  their  full  share  of  credit.  His  second  dispatch,  re 
specting  the  battle  of  Talladega,  seems  to  have  been  dictated 
by  a  feeling  that  he  had  not  in  his  first  dispatch  given  praise 
enough  to  his  brave  comrades.  Nor  was  General  Cocke  in  a 
position,  at  the  time  of  his  arrest,  to  reap  the  exclusive  glory 
of  any  operation.  That  arrest  was  unjust,  as  the  verdict  of 
the  court  martial  shows.  It  occurred  through  the  intense,  ac 
cumulated  exasperation  of  Jackson's  over-burdened  mind  and 
emaciated  body.  It  was  a  mistake  characteristic  of  the  man, 
and  in  some  degree  pardonable,  from  the  racking  embarrass 
ments  of  his  situation.  Jackson's  animosity  against  General 
Cocke  outlasted  the  war ;  and  he  was  heard  more  than  once 
to  declare,  that  if,  at  the  time  of  the  arrest,  General  Cocke 
had  been  within  his  reach,  he  would  have  hung  him  at  the 
head  of  his  division — language  which  must  be  understood,  I 
suppose,  in  a  Jacksonian  sense. 


CHAPTER    XLIL 

HUNGER      AND      MUTINY. 

"  AN  army,  like  a  serpent,  goes  upon  its  belly,"  Frederic 
of  Prussia  used  to  say.  "  Few  men  know,"  Marshal  McMa- 
hon  is  reported  to  have  remarked,  after  one  of  the  late  Italian 
battles,  "  how  important  it  is  in  war  for  soldiers  not  to  be 
kept  waiting  for  their  rations  ;  and  what  vast  events  depend 
upon  an  army's  not  going  into  action  before  it  has  had  its 


458  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

coffee/'  I  have  read  somewhere  that  Napoleon,  on  being 
asked  what  a  soldier  most  needed  in  war,  answered,  "  A  full 
belly  and  a  good  pair  of  shoes." 

We  left  General  Jackson  at  Fort  Strother,  giving  out  his 
last  biscuit  to  his  hungry  troops,  and  appeasing  his  own  ap 
petite  with  unseasoned  tripe.  Then  followed  ten  long  weeks 
of  agonizing  perplexity,  during  which,  though  the  enemy  was 
unmolested  by  the  Tennessee  troops,  their  General  appeared 
in  a  light  more  truly  heroic  than  at  any  other  part  of  his 
military  life.  His  fortitude,  his  will,  alone  saved  the  cam 
paign.  His  burning  letters  kept  the  cause  alive  in  the  State  ; 
his  example,  resolution,  activity  and  courage  preserved  the 
conquests  already  achieved,  and  prepared  the  way  for  others 
that  threw  them  into  the  shade.  The  spectacle  of  a  brave 
man  contending  with  difficulties  is  one  in  which  the  gods 
were  said  to  take  delight.  Such  a  spectacle  was  exhibited  by 
Andrew  Jackson  during  these  weeks  of  enforced  inaction. 

"  I  have  been  compelled,"  he  wrote  to  a  contractor  a  few 
days  after  Talladega,  "  to  return  here  for  the  want  of  sup 
plies,  when  I  could  have  completed  the  destruction  of  the 
enemy  in  ten  days  ;  and  on  my  arrival,  I  find  those  I  had 
left  behind  in  the  same  starving  condition  with  those  who 
accompanied  me.  For  God's  sake  send  me  with  all  dispatch, 
plentiful  supplies  of  bread  and  meat.  We  have  been  starving 
for  several  days,  and  it  will  not  do  to  continue  so  much  longer. 
Hire  wagons  and  purchase  supplies  at  any  price  rather  than 
defeat  the  expedition.  General  White,  instead  of  forming  a 
junction  with  me,  as  he  assured  me  he  would,  has  taken  the 
retrograde  motion,  after  having  amused  himself  with  consum 
ing  provisions  for  three  weeks  in  the  Cherokee  nation,  and 
left  me  to  rely  on  my  own  strength." 

Letters  such  as  this  did  not,  because  they  could  not,  pro 
duce  the  desired  effect.  Small  supplies  of  provisions  occasion 
ally  arrived,  which  served  just  to  keep  the  army  alive  and 
ravenously  hungry. 

Hunger,  that  great  tamer  of  beasts  and  men,  is  precisely 
the  enemy  against  which  amateur  soldiers  are  least  able  to 


1813.1  HUNGER     AND     MUTINY.  459 

contend.  Lounging  and  dozing  about  the  camp,  unable  to 
make  the  slightest  attempt  against  the  foe,  their  first  love  of 
adventure  satisfied,  desirous  to  recount  their  exploits  to 
friends  at  home,  pining  for  the  abundance  they  had  left, 
anxious  for  their  farms  and  families,  and  angered  at  the  sup 
posed  neglect  of  the  State  authorities  and  contractors,  the 
troops  became  discontented,  and  began  to  clamor  for  the 
order  to  return  into  the  settlements.  Jackson's  force  con 
sisted  of  two  kinds  of  troops,  militia  and  volunteers.  It 
seemed  at  first  a  proof  of  the  policy  of  the  purely  voluntary 
principle,  that  it  was  among  the  militia  that  the  discontents 
took  quickest  root ;  the  pride  of  the  volunteers  keeping  them 
firm  in  their  duty  after  the  militia  were  resolved  to  abandon 
theirs.  It  is  said,  however,  that  some  of  the  volunteers  who, 
from  their  having  accompanied  the  General  on  his  fruitless 
inarch  to  Natchez,  were  looked  upon  as  the  veterans  of  the 
army,  were  not  the  last  to  join  the  malcontents,  nor  the  most 
moderate  in  expressing  their  feelings.  These  men  spoke  with 
a  kind  of  oracular  authority,  which  had  influence  with  the 
younger  soldiers.  Some  of  the  officers,  too,  overcome  by 
that  bane  and  blight  of  republican  virtue,  the  lust  of  popu 
larity,  secretly  sided  with  the  men,  and  fomented  their  mu 
tinous  disposition.  In  secluded  places  about  the  camp,  by 
the  watch-fires  at  night,  wherever  a  group  of  hungry  soldiers 
were  together,  they  talked  of  their  wrongs,  of  the  uselessness 
of  remaining  where  they  were,  and  how  much  better  it  would 
be  for  the  army  to  return  home  for  a  while,  and  finish  the 
war  under  better  auspices  at  a  more  convenient  season. 

In  circumstances  like  these  revolt  ripens  apace.  Ten  days 
of  gnawing  hunger  and  inaction  at  Fort  Strother  brought  all 
the  militia  regiments  to  the  resolution  of  marching  back,  in 
a  body,  to  the  settlements,  with  or  without  the  consent  of 
the  commanding  general,  and  a  day  was  fixed  upon  for  their 
departure.  Jackson  heard  of  it  in  time.  On  the  designated 
morning,  the  militia  began  the  homeward  movement.  But 
they  found  a  lion  in  the  path.  The  General  was  up  before 
them,  and  had  drawn  up  on  the  road  leading  to  the  settle- 


460  LIFE     OF     ANDKEW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

nients  the  whole  body  of  volunteers,  with  orders  to  prevent 
the  departure  of  the  militia,  peaceably  if  they  could,  forcibly 
if  they  must.  The  militia,  in  this  unexpected  posture  of 
affairs,  renounced  their  intention,  and,  obeying  the  orders  of 
the  General,  returned  to  their  position  and  their  duty. 

It  soon  appeared,  however,  that  the  volunteers  were  as 
much  chagrined  and  disappointed  at  the  success  of  this  move 
ment  as  the  militia,  and,  ere  night  closed  in,  resolved  them 
selves  to  depart  on  the  following  day.  The  General,  apprised 
of  their  intention,  was  again  early  in  the  field.  Imagine  the 
surprise  of  the  volunteers  when,  on  taking  the  projected  line 
of  march,  they  found  drawn  up  in  hostile  array  to  prevent 
them  the  very  militia  whose  departure  they  had  frustrated 
the  day  before  !  The  militia  stood  firm,  and  the  volunteers, 
not  without  some  grim  laughter  at  this  practical  retort,  re 
turned  to  their  stations.  The  cavalry,  however,  having 
petitioned  the  General  for  permission  to  retire  to  Huntsville 
long  enough  to  recruit  their  famished  horses,  promising  to 
return  when  that  object  was  accomplished,  were  allowed  to 
leave.  Jackson  remained  in  the  wilderness  with  his  thousand 
infantry,  now  sullen  and  enraged,  and  rapidly  approaching 
the  point  of  downright  mutiny. 

As  was  his  wont  in  every  crisis,  the  General  tried  the 
effect  of  a  patriotic  address.  Inviting  the  officers  of  all 
grades  to  his  quarters,  he  first  laid  before  them  the  letters 
last  received  from  Tennessee,  which  gave  assurance  that  a 
plentiful  supply  of  provisions  was  already  on  the  way,  and 
that  measures  were  in  operation  which  would  insure  a  suf 
ficiency  in  future.  He  then  delivered  a  warm  and  energetic 
speech,  extolling  their  past  achievements,  lamenting  their  pri 
vations,  and  urging  them  still  to  persevere.  The  conquests 
they  had  already  made,  he  said,  were  of  the  greatest  impor 
tance,  and  the  most  dreadful  consequences  would  result  from 
abandoning  them.  "  What,"  he  asked,  "  is  the  present  situ 
ation  of  our  camp  ?  A  number  of  our  fellow-soldiers  are 
wounded,  and  unable  to  help  themselves.  Shall  it  be  said 
that  we  are  so  lost  to  humanity  as  to  leave  them  in  this  con- 


1813.]  HUNGER     AND     MUTINY.  461 

dition  ?  Can  an}7  one,  under  these  circumstances,  and  under 
these  prospects,  consent  to  an  abandonment  of  the  camp  ;  of 
all  that  we  have  acquired  in  the  midst  of  so  many  difficulties, 
privations,  and  dangers  ;  of  what  it  will  cost  us  so  much  to 
regain ;  of  what  we  never  can  regain — our  brave  wounded 
companions,  who  will  be  murdered  by  our  unthinking,  unfeel 
ing  inhumanity  ?  Surely  there  can  be  none  such  !  No,  we 
will  take  with  us,  when  we  go,  our  wounded  and  sick.  They 
must  not,  shall  not  perish  by  our  cold-blooded  indifference. 
But  why  should  you  despond  ?  I  do  not;  and  yet  your  wants 
are  not  greater  than  mine.  To  be  sure  we  do  not  live  sumptu 
ously  ;  but  no  one  has  died  of  hunger,  or  is  likely  to  die  : 
and  then  how  animating  are  our  prospects  !  Large  supplies 
are  at  Deposit,  and  already  are  officers  dispatched  to  hasten 
them  on.  Wagons  are  on  the  way  :  a  large  number  of  beeves 
are  in  the  neighborhood  ;  and  detachments  are  out  to  bring 
them  in.  All  these  resources  can  not  fail.  I  have  no  wish 
to  starve  you — none  to  deceive  you.  Stsy  contentedly  ;  and 
if  supplies  do  not  arrive  in  two  days,  ive  will  all  march  back 
together,  and  throw  the  blame  of  our  failure  where  it  should 
properly  lie  ;  until  then  we  certainly  have  the  means  of  sub 
sisting  ;  and  if  we  are  compelled  to  bear  privations,  let  us 
remember  that  they  are  borne  for  our  country,  and  are  not 
greater  than  many,  perhaps  most  armies  have  been  compelled 
to  endure.  I  have  called  you  together  to  tell  you  my  feel 
ings  and  my  wishes  ;  this  evening  think  on  them  seriously  ; 
and  let  me  know  yours  in  the  morning."* 

The  officers  returned  to  their  quarters,  and  consulted  with 
the  troops.  On  this  occasion,  whether  from  a  spirit  of  rivalry 
or  the  sense  of  duty,  the  militia  proved  more  tractable  than 
the  volunteers,  for  on  the  return  of  the  officers  to  Jackson's 
tent  the  officers  of  the  volunteer  regiments  reported  that 
nothing  short  of  an  immediate  return  to  the  settlements  could 
prevent  the  forcible  departure  of  their  men  ;  but  the  militia 
officers  declared  the  willingness  of  their  troops  to  remain  long 

*  Eaton. 
VOL.  i. — 30 


462  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

enough  to  ascertain  whether  supplies  could  be  obtained.  "  If 
they  can/7  said  they,  alet  us  proceed  with  the  campaign 
— if  not,  let  us  be  marched  back  to  where  they  can  be  pro 
cured." 

The  General  thought  it  best  to  take  both  bodies  at  their 
word.  He  sent  one  regiment  of  volunteers  to  meet  the  com 
ing  provisions,  ordering  them  to  return  with  them  as  an 
escort.  The  other  volunteer  regiment,  shamed  by  the  supe 
rior  fortitude  of  the  militia,  agreed  to  stay  two  days  longer  ; 
and  thus  the  General  gained  a  brief  respite  from  his  torturing 
solicitude.  These  departing  volunteers  were  the  very  men 
whom  Jackson  had  refused  to  abandon  at  Natchez,  even  at 
the  command  of  the  government,  and  for  whose  safe  return 
he  had  pledged  and  risked  his  fortune.  That  they  should 
have  been  the  first,  in  his  sore  perplexity,  to  abandon  him, 
was  an  event  which  gave  him  the  most  acute  mortification. 

The  two  days  passed.  No  provisions  arrived.  The  mili 
tia  demanded  the  prompt  fulfillment  of  the  General's  promise. 
He  was  now  in  the  dilemma  that  Columbus  would  have  been 
in  if  land  had  not  been  descried  in  three  days.  He  was  caught 
in  his  own  trap.  He  had  fully  believed  that  two  days  would 
not  pass  without  the  arrival  of  at  least  supplies  enough  to 
release  him  from  his  engagement.  All  expedients  now  were 
exhausted.  Overwhelmed  with  despondency,  he  lifted  up  his 
hands  and  exclaimed,  after  long  brooding  over  his  situation, 
"  If  only  two  men  will  remain  with  me,  I  will  never  abandon 
the  post  !"  One  Captain  Gordon,  of  whom  we  shall  hear 
more  hereafter,  replied,  in  a  jocular  manner,  "  You  have  one, 
General,  let  us  see  if  we  can  not  find  another."  He  set  about 
seeking  volunteers,  and,  aided  by  the  General's  staff,  soon 
obtained  the  names  of  one  hundred  and  nine  men  who  agreed 
to  remain  and  defend  the  fort.  Kejoicing  at  this  result,  the 
General  left  Fort  Strother  in  their  charge,  and  inarched  him 
self,  with  the  rest  of  the  troops,  toward  Fort  Deposit,  upon 
the  explicit  understanding  that,  having  met  the  expected 
provisions,  and  having  satisfied  their  hunger,  they  were  to 
xeturn  with  the  provision  train  to  Fort  Strother,  and  proceed 


1813.]  HUNGER     AND     MUTINY.  463 

against  the  enemy.     It  was  to  insure  the  performance  of  this 
engagement  that  he  commanded  them  in  person. 

Away  they  marched,  haggard  and  hungry,  but  in  high 
spirits,  and  praying  Heaven  they  might  not  meet  the  coming 
supplies — so  desperate  was  their  desire  to  return  home.  To 
Jackson's  inexpressible  joy,  and  to  the  dismay  of  his  troops, 
they  had  not  marched  more  than  twelve  miles  before  they  saw 
approaching  them  a  drove  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  cattle. 
Halt,  kill,  and  eat,  was  the  word.  The  slaughtering,  the  cook 
ing,  and  the  devouring  were  quickly  accomplished  ;  and  the 
army,  filled  with  beef  and  valor,  felt  itself  able  to  cope  even 
with  General  Jackson.  To  return  to  Fort  Strother  was  the 
furthest  from  their  thoughts.  When  the  order  to  return  was 
given  the  General  himself  was  not  in  the  immediate  presence 
of  the  troops,  and  the  order  was  not  obeyed.  One  company 
moved  off  on  the  homeward  road,  had  gone  some  distance, 
and  were  about  to  be  followed  by  others,  when  word  was 
brought  to  Jackson  of  the  mutiny.  Followed  by  his  staff 
and  a  few  faithful  Mends,  he  galloped  in  pursuit,  and  came, 
by  a  detour,  to  a  part  of  the  road  a  little  in  advance  of  the 
deserters,  where  he  found  General  Coffee  and  a  small  force. 
Forming  these  across  the  road,  he  ordered  them  to  fire  upon 
the  deserters  if  they  should  persist  in  their  attempt  to  leave. 
On  coming  up,  the  homesick  gentlemen  gave  one  glance  at 
the  fiery  general  and  the  opposing  force,  and  fled  precipi 
tately  to  their  stations. 

The  manner,  appearance,  and  language  of  General  Jack 
son  on  occasions  like  this  were  literally  terrific.  Few  com 
mon  men  could  stand  before  the  ferocity  of  his  aspect  and  the 
violence  of  his  words.  His  ability  in  swearing  amounted  to 
a  talent.  Volleys  of  the  most  peculiar  and  original  oaths, 
ejected  with  a  violence  that  can  not  be  imagined,  scared  and 
overwhelmed  the  object  of  his  wrath.  Aware  of  his  powers 
in  this  respect,  he  would  feign  a  fury  that  he  did  not  feel,  and 
obtain  his  ends  through  the  groundless  terror  of  his  oppo 
nents.  This  was  particularly  the  case  in  his  dealings  with 
Spaniards.  On  the  present  occasion,  I  presume  that  the  mu- 


464  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

tineers  were  put  to  flight  as  much  by  the  terrible  aspect  of 
the  General  as  by  the  armed  men  who  were  with  him.  I  can 
fancy  the  scene — Jackson  in  advance  of  Coffee's  men,  his 
grizzled  hair  bristling  up  from  his  forehead,  his  face  as  red  as 
fire,  his  eyes  sparkling  and  flashing  ;  roaring  out  with  the 
voice  of  a  Stentor  and  the  energy  of  Andrew  Jackson,  "  By 
the  immaculate  God  !  I'll  blow  the  damned  villains  to  eter 
nity,  if  they  advance  another  step  !"  It  would  have  been 
quite  like  him  to  have  done  and  said  just  that. 

Trusting  that  the  men  would  now  do  their  duty,  the 
General  went  among  them,  leaving  General  Coffee  and  his 
own  staff  to  proceed  with  the  preparations  for  departure.  He 
found  almost  the  whole  brigade  infected,  and  on  the  point  of 
moving  toward  home.  Upon  the  instant,  he  resolved  to  pre 
vent  this,  or  perish  there  and  then  in  the  path  before  them. 
He  seized  a  musket  and  rode  a  few  paces  in  advance  of  the 
troops.  His  left  arm  was  still  in  a  sling.  Leaning  his  mus 
ket  on  his  horse's  neck,  he  swore  he  would  shoot  the  first  man 
that  attempted  to  proceed.  Meanwhile,  General  Coffee  and 
Major  Keid,  suspecting  that  something  extraordinary  was  oc 
curring,  ran  up,  and  found  their  General  in  this  attitude, 
with  the  column  of  mutineers  standing  in  sullen  silence  before 
him  ;  not  a  man  daring  to  stir  a  foot  forward.  Placing  them 
selves  by  his  side,  they  awaited  the  result  with  intense  anxiety. 
Gradually,  a  few  of  the  troops,  who  were  still  faithful,  were 
collected  behind  the  General,  armed,  and  resolved  to  use  their 
arms  in  his  support.  For  some  minutes,  the  column  of  mu 
tineers  stood  firm  to  their  purpose,  and  it  only  needed  one 
man  bold  enough  to  advance  to  bring  on  a  bloody  scene. 
They  wavered,  however,  at  length,  abandoned  their  purpose, 
and  agreed  to  return  to  their  duty.  It  afterwards  appeared, 
that  the  musket  which  figured  so  effectually  in  this  scene  was 
too  much  out  of  order  to  be  discharged. 

The  troops  were  not  in  the  highest  spirits,  nor  in  the 
most  amiable  humor,  as  they  marched  back  to  Fort  Strother, 
that  afternoon.  Yet  they  marched  back,  and  the  frontiers 
were  still  safe.  Jackson  did  not  return  with  them,  but  pro- 


1813.]      MUTINY     IN     THE     MIDST     OF     PLENTY.        465 

ceeded  to  Fort  Deposit  to  inspect  that  post,  and  personally 
hasten  forward  supplies.  Prodigious  exertions  were  now  put 
forth.  Major  Lewis  surpassed  himself.  Two  hundred  pack 
horses  and  forty  wagons  were  taken  into  service  by  him. 
From  this  time  the  operations  of  the  army  were  not  seriously 
impeded  hy  the  want  of  supplies.  News  now  came  that  the 
measures  so  hastily  adopted  by  the  State  of  Tennessee  had 
been  approved  by  the  government  at  Washington,  and  that 
the  whole  force  employed  had  been  received  into  the  service 
of  the  United  States.  Jackson  rejoined  his  division  in  high 
spirits,  and  was  rejoiced  to  find  that  the  works  at  Fort 
Strother  had  been  vigorously  carried  on  in  his  absence. 
Nothing  seemed  now  to  oppose  the  successful  prosecution 
of  the  war.  A  few  swift  marches,  a  few  well-fought  en 
gagements,  and  the  troops  might  return  home,  the  General 
thought,  to  receive  the  applause  of  the  State  and  the  nation. 
Ordering  General  Cocke  to  join  him  at  Fort  Strother,  with 
the  troops  from  East  Tennessee,  he  expected  nothing  but  to 
renew  the  contest  upon  their  arrival. 


CHAPTER     XLIII. 

MUTINY     IN     THE     MIDST     OF     PLENTY. 

BUT  the  General  was  reckoning  without  his  army.  The 
volunteers,  penetrated  with  the  spirit  of  discontent,  soon  pro 
vided  themselves  with  a  new  argument  for  abandoning  the 
service.  The  first  days  of  December  were  now  passing.  It 
was  on  the  10th  of  December,  1812,  that  these  volunteers 
had  entered  into  service  ;  engaging,  as  they  said,  to  serve  one 
year.  They,  accordingly,  made  no  secret  of  their  intention 
to  leave  the  camp  on  the  10th  of  December,  1813.  But  they 
were  now  reckoning  without  their  General,  who  recalled  to 
their  recollection  that  they  had  engaged  to  serve  one  year  in 


466  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

two  !  They  had  been  subject  to  the  CALL  of  the  government 
for  a  year  ;  but,  for  more  than  half  of  that  period,  they  had 
been  at  home,  pursuing  their  own  affairs.  Nothing  short, 
maintained  the  General,  of  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days 
of  actual  service  in  the  field  could  release  them  from  their 
obligation  before  the  10th  of  December,  1814. 

Such  was  the  new  issue  between  the  General  and  the  vol 
unteers.  It  was  warmly  argued,  with  the  inevitable  effect  of 
confirming  each  in  the  opinion  that  accorded  with  his  desire. 
The  General  was  clear  in  the  belief  that  he  was  in  the  right ; 
but  he  seems,  from  the  beginning  of  this  contest,  to  have  seen 
that  it  was  useless  to  attempt  new  enterprises,  unless  seconded 
by  the  alacrity  of  his  men.  Therefore,  while  firmly  resisting 
the  departure  of  the  troops,  he  saw  the  necessity  of  procuring 
new  levies  from  the  State,  and  to  this  object  devoted  his  ener 
gies.  General  Koberts,  Colonel  Carroll,  and  Major  Searcy, 
officers  high  in  his  confidence,  were  dispatched  to  Tennessee 
to  hasten  the  assembling  of  a  new  army  ;  while  Jackson 
wrote  letter  upon  letter  to  influential  friends,  urging  them  to 
aid  the  cause  by  personal  efforts. 

These  letters  of  the  General  show  with  how  little  gram 
mar  a  man  in  earnest  can  write  well  and  powerfully.  Note 
the  energy  and  point  of  the  following,  written  by  Jackson  at 
this  time  to  the  Kev.  Gideon  Blackburn,  who  was  for  forty 
years  a  famous  preacher,  church-organizer,  and  Indian  mis 
sionary  of  the  far  West,  a  warm  friend  to  Jackson,  and  a  man 
of  power  over  a  western  audience  : — 

"  KEVEREND  SIR  : — Your  letter  has  been  just  received :  I  thank  you  for 
it ;  I  thank  you  most  sincerely.  It  arrived  at  a  moment  when  my  spirits 
needed  such  a  support. 

"  I  left  Tennessee  with  an  army,  brave,  I  believe,  as  any  general  ever 
commanded.  I  have  seen  them  in  battle,  and  my  opinion  of  their  bravery 
is  not  changed.  But  their  fortitude — on  this,  too,  I  relied — has  been  too 
severely  tested.  Perhaps  I  was  wrong,  in  believing  that  nothing  but 
death  could  conquer  the  spirits  of  brave  men.  I  am  sure  I  was ;  for  my 
men,  I  know,  are  brave ;  yet  privations  have  rendered  them  discontented : 
that  is  enough.  The  expedition  must  nevertheless  be  prosecuted  to  a  suc 
cessful  termination.  New  volunteers  must  be  raised,  to  conclude  what  has 


1813.]       MUTINY     IN     THE     MIDST     OF     PLENTY.  467 

been  so  auspiciously  begun  by  the  old  ones.  Gladly  would  I  save  these 
men  from  themselves,  and  insure  them  a  harvest  which  they  have  sown ; 
but  if  they  will  abandon  it  to  others,  it  must  be  so. 

"  You  are  good  enough  to  say,  if  I  need  your  assistance,  it  will  be 
cheerfully  afforded ;  I  do  need  it  greatly.  The  influence  you  possess  over 
the  minds  of  men  is  great  and  well-founded,  and  can  never  be  better  ap 
plied  than  in  summoning  volunteers  to  the  defense  of  their  country,  their 
liberty,  and  their  religion.  While  we  fight  the  savage,  who  makes  war 
only  because  he  delights  in  blood,  and  who  has  gotten  his  booty  when  he 
has  scalped  his  victim,  we  are,  through  him,  contending  against  an  enemy 
of  more  inveterate  character  and  deeper  design,  who  would  demolish  a 
fabric  cemented  by  the  blood  of  our  fathers,  and  endeared  to  us  by  all  the 
happiness  we  enjoy.  So  far  as  my  exertions  can  contribute,  the  purposes, 
both  of  the  savage  and  his  instigator,  shall  be  defeated ;  and  so  far  as 
yours  can,  I  hope — I  know,  they  will  be  employed.  I  have  said  enough : 
I  want  men,  and  want  them  immediately." 

To  raise  a  new  force  and  march  it  a  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  into  the  Indian  country  was  necessarily  a  work  of 
considerable  time,  during  which  we  see  the  General,  some  of 
his  best  officers  away  recruiting,  and  his  right  arm,  General 
Coffee,  sick  at  Huntsville,  contending,  almost  alone,  with  a 
fractious  soldiery.  Defeated  in  their  previous  attempts  at 
forcible  departure,  these  men  now  tried  to  move  their  com 
mander  by  argument  and  entreaty.  A  formal  letter  from  one 
of  the  colonels,  which  Jackson  received  a  few  days  before  the 
dreaded  10th  of  December,  expressed  the  feelings  of  the  troops. 
It  made  known  to  him  that  the  whole  body  of  volunteers  re 
tained  the  unalterable  opinion  that  they  would  be  entitled  to 
a  legal  release  on  the  10th.  "  They,  therefore,  look  to  their 
General,  who  holds  their  confidence,  for  an  honorable  dis 
charge  on  that  day  ;  and  that,  in  every  respect,  he  will  see 
that  justice  be  done  them.  They  regret  that  their  peculiar 
situations  and  circumstances  require  them  to  leave  their  Gen 
eral  at  a  time  when  their  services  are  important  to  the  com 
mon  cause.  It  would  be  desirable  that  those  men  who  have 
served  with  honor  should  be  honorably  discharged,  and  that 
they  should  return  to  their  families  and  friends  without  even 
the  semblance  of  disgrace  ;  with  their  General  they  leave  it 


468  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

to  place  them  in  that  situation.  They  have  received  him  as 
an  affectionate  father,  while  they  have  honored,  revered,  and 
obeyed  him ;  but  having  devoted  a  considerable  portion  of 
their  time  to  the  service  of  their  country,  by  which  their  do 
mestic  concerns  are  greatly  deranged,  they  wish  to  return  and 
attend  to  their  own  aifairs." 

An  appeal  like  this  was  harder  for  a  man  of  Jackson's  cast 
of  character  to  resist  than  armed  mutiny.  He  had  no  choice 
but  to  resist  it.  It  was  essential  to  the  safety  of  the  frontiers 
that  these  men  should  remain  in  service,  at  least  until  they 
could  be  relieved  by  other  troops.  Jackson's  reply  to  this 
letter  was  moderate  and  unanswerable. 

"  I  know  not,"  said  he,  "  what  scenes  will  be  exhibited  on  the  10th  in 
stant,  nor  what  consequences  are  to  flow  from  them  here  or  elsewhere;  but 
as  I  shall  have  the  consciousness  that  they  are  not  imputable  to  any  mis 
conduct  of  mine,  I  trust  I  shall  have  the  firmness  not  to  shrink  from  a  dis 
charge  of  my  duty. 

"  It  will  be  well,  however,  for  those  who  intend  to  become  actors  in 
those  scenes,  and  who  are  about  to  hazard  so  much  on  the  correctness  of 
their  opinions,  to  examine  beforehand,  with  great  caution  and  deliberation, 
the  grounds  on  which  their  pretensions  rest.  Are  they  founded  on  any  false 
assurances  of  mine,  or  upon  any  deception  that  has  been  practiced  towards 
them  ?  Was  not  the  act  of  Congress,  under  which  they  are  engaged,  di 
rected,  by  my  general  order,  to  be  read  and  expounded  to  them  before  they 
enrolled  themselves  ?  That  order  will  testify,  and  so  will  the  recollection 
of  every  general  officer  of  my  division.  It  is  not  pretended  that  those  who 
now  claim  to  be  discharged,  were  not  legally  and  fairly  enrolled  under  the 
act  of  Congress  of  the  6th  of  February,  1812.  Have  they  performed  the 
service  required  of  them  by  that  act,  and  which  they  then  solemnly  under 
took  to  perform  ?  That  required  one  year's  service  out  of  two,  to  be  com 
puted  from  the  day  of  rendezvous,  unless  they  should  be  sooner  discharged. 
Has  one  year's  service  been  performed  ?  This  can  not  be  seriously  pre 
tended.  Have  they  then  been  discharged  ?  It  is  said  they  have,  and  by  me. 
To  account  for  so  extraordinary  a  belief,  it  may  be  necessary  to  take  a  re 
view  of  past  circumstances. 

"  More  than  twelve  months  have  elapsed  since  we  were  called  upon  to 
avenge  the  injured  rights  of  our  country.  We  obeyed  the  call !  In  the 
midst  of  hardships,  which  none  but  those  to  whom  liberty  is  dear  could 
have  borne  without  a  murmur,  we  descended  the  Mississippi.  It  was  be 
lieved  our  services  were  wanted  in  the  prosecution  of  the  just  war  in  which 


1813.]       MUTINY     IN     THE     MIDST     OF     PLENTY.        469 

our  country  was  engaged,  and  we  were  prepared  to  render  them.  But, 
though  we  were  disappointed  in  our  expectations,  we  established  for  Ten 
nessee  a  name  which  will  long  do  her  honor.  At  length,  we  received  a 
letter  from  the  Secretary  of  War  directing  our  dismission.  You  well  recol 
lect  the  circumstances  of  wretchedness  in  which  this  order  was  calculated 
to  place  us.  'By  it,  we  were  deprived  of  every  article  of  public  property ; 
no  provision  was  made  for  the  payment  of  our  troops,  or  their  subsistence 
on  their  return  march;  while  many  of  our  sick,  unable  to  help  themselves, 
must  have  perished.  Against  the  opinion  of  many,  I  marched  them  back 
to  their  homes  before  I  dismissed  them.  Your  regiment,  at  its  own  re- 
quest7  was  dismissed  at  Columbia.  This  was  accompanied  with  a  certifi 
cate  to  each  man,  expressing  the  acts  under  which  he  had  been  enrolled, 
and  the  length  of  the  tour  he  had  performed.  This  it  is  which  is  now  at 
tempted  to  be  construed  '  a  final  discharge.'  But  surely  it  can  not  be  for 
gotten  by  any  officer  or  soldier,  how  sacredly  they  pledged  themselves,  be 
fore  they  were  dismissed  or  received  that  certificate,  cheerfully  to  obey  the 
voice  of  their  country,  if  it  should  re-summon  them  into  service ;  neither 
can  it  be  forgotten,  I  dare  hope,  for  what  purpose  that  certificate  was 
given ;  it  was  to  secure,  if  possible,  to  those  brave  men,  who  had  shown 
such  readiness  to  serve  their  country,  certain  extra  emoluments,  specified 
in  the  seventh  section  of  the  act  under  which  they  had  engaged,  in  the 
event  they  were  not  recalled  into  service  for  the  residue  of  their  term. 

"  Is  it  true,  then,  that  my  solicitude  for  the  interest  of  the  volunteers,  is 
to  be  made  by  them  a  pretext  for  disgracing  a  name  which  they  have  ren 
dered  illustrious  ?  Is  a  certificate,  designed  solely  for  their  benefit,  to  be 
come  the  rallying  word  for  mutiny? — strange  perversion  of  feeling  and 
of  reasoning !  Have  I  really  any  power  to  discharge  men  whose  term  of 
service  has  not  expired  ?  If  I  were  weak  or  wicked  enough  to  attempt 
the  exercise  of  such  a  power,  does  any  one  believe  the  soldier  would  be 
thereby  exonerated  from  the  obligation  he  has  voluntarily  taken  upon  him 
self  to  his  government  ?  I  should  become  a  traitor  to  the  important  con 
cern  which  has  been  entrusted  to  my  management,  while  the  soldier,  who 
had  been  deceived  by  a  false  hope  of  liberation,  would  be  stiU  liable  to 
redeem  his  pledge  ; — I  should  disgrace  myself,  without  benefiting  you. 

"  I  can  only  deplore  the  situation  of  those  officers  who  have  under 
taken  to  persuade  their  men  that  their  term  of  service  will  expire  on  the 
10th.  In  giving  their  opinions  to  this  effect,  they  have  acted  indiscreetly, 
and  without  sufficient  authority.  It  would  be  the  most  pleasing  act  of 
my  life  to  restore  them  with  honor  to  their  families.  Nothing  could  pain 
me  more  than  that  any  other  sentiments  should  be  felt  towards  them,  than 
those  of  gratitude  and  esteem.  On  all  occasions,  it  has  been  my  highest 
happiness  to  promote  their  interest,  and  even  to  gratify  their  wishes,  where, 
with  propriety,  it  could  be  done.  When  in  the  lower  country,  believing 


470  LIFE     OF     ANDKEW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

that,  in  the  order  for  their  dismissal,  they  had  been  improperly  treated,  I 
even  solicited  the  government  to  discharge  them,  finally,  from  the  obliga 
tions  into  which  they  had  entered.  You  know  the  answer  of  the  Secre 
tary  of  War ; — that  neither  he  nor  the  President,  as  he  believed,  had  the 
power  to  discharge  them.  How,  then,  can  it  be  required  of  me  to  do  so  ? 
"  The  moment  it  is  signified  to  me  by  any  competent  authority,  even 
by  the  Governor  of  Tennessee,  to  whom  I  have  written  on  the  subject,  or 
by  General  Pinckney,  who  is  now  appointed  to  the  command,  that  the 
volunteers  may  be  exonerated  from  further  service,  that  moment  I  will 
pronounce  it,  with  the  greatest  satisfaction.  I  have  only  the  power  of 
pronouncing  a  discharge, — not  of  giving  it,  in  any  case ; — a  distinction 
which  I  would  wish  should  be  borne  in  mind.  Already  have  I  sent  to  raise 
volunteers,  on  my  own  responsibility,  to  complete  a  campaign  which  has 
been  so  happily  begun,  and  thus  far,  so  fortunately  prosecuted.  The  mo 
ment  they  arrive,  and  I  am  assured,  that,  fired  by  our  exploits,  they  will 
hasten  in  crowds,  on  the  first  intimation  that  we  need  their  services,  they 
will  be  substituted  in  the  place  of  those  who  are  discontented  here.  The 
latter  will  then  be  permitted  to  return  to  their  homes,  with  all  the  honor 
which,  under  such  circumstances,  they  can  carry  along  with  them.  But 
I  still  cherish  the  hope  that  their  dissatisfaction  and  complaints  have  been 
greatly  exaggerated.  I  can  not,  must  not  believe,  that  the  '  Volunteers 
of  Tennessee,'  a  name  ever  dear  to  fame,  will  disgrace  themselves,  and  a 
country  which  they  have  honored,  by  abandoning  her  standard,  as  muti 
neers  and  deserters ;  but  should  I  be  disappointed,  and  compelled  to  resign 
this,  pleasing  hope,  one  thing  I  will  not  resign — my  duty.  Mutiny  and 
sedition,  so  long  as  I  possess  the  power  of  quelling  them,  shall  be  put 
down;  and  even  when  left  destitute  of  this,  I  will  still  be  found,  in  the 
last  extremity,  endeavoring  to  discharge  the  duty  I  owe  my  country  and 
myself."* 

This  reply,  one  would  think,  ought  to  have  been  convinc 
ing,  but  it  was  not.  The  men  were  not  under  the  influence 
of  reason,  and  would  heed  nothing  that  tended  to  defer  their 
departure. 

The  afternoon  of  the  9th  ended.  The  frenzy  of  the 
men  to  return  was  such,  that  they  were  determined  not  even 
to  wait  for  the  morning  ;  but  to  march  at  the  very  moment 
their  last  day's  service  had  been  rendered.  Jackson  was  in 
his  tent,  not  anticipating  a  movement  that  evening,  when  an 
officer  suddenly  entered,  and  informed  him  that  the  whole 

*  Eaton's  Life  of  Jackson. 


1813.]       MUTINY    IN     THE     MIDST     OF     PLENTY.  471 

brigade  was  in  mutiny,  and  preparing  to  march  off  in  a 
body.  By  the  Eternal  !  All  the  tiger  in  the  man  was 
roused  in  an  instant.  He  dashed  upon  paper  the  following 
order  : 

"  The  commanding  General  being  informed  that  an  actual 
mutiny  exists  in  the  camp,  all  officers  and  soldiers  are  com 
manded  to  put  it  down.  The  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  first 
brigade  will,  without  delay,  parade  on  the  west  side  of  the 
fort,  and  await  further  orders/' 

He  further  ordered  the  artillery  company,  with  their  two 
small  pieces  of  cannon,  to  take  positions  in  front  and  rear, 
and  the  militia  to  be  drawn  up  on  an  eminence  command 
ing  the  road  upon  which  the  volunteers  intended  to  march. 
These  orders  were  obeyed  with  surprising  alacrity,  for  Jack 
son  was  now  in  that  mood  that  men  felt  it  perilous  to  resist. 
The  General  mounted  his  horse  and  rode  up  to  the  line  of 
volunteers,  as  they  stood  along  the  western  side  of  the  fort, 
silent,  sullen,  and  determined.  He  broke  at  once  into  an  im 
passioned,  yet  not  angry  address.  He  praised  their  former 
good  conduct.  He  dwelt  upon  the  disgrace  that  would  fall 
upon  themselves  and  their  families  if  they  should  carry  home 
with  them  the  name  of  mutineers  and  deserters.  Never 
should  they  do  it  but  by  passing  over  his  dead  body.  He 
would  do  Iris  duty,  at  any  cost ;  aye,  even  if  he  perished 
there  before  them,  dying  honorably  at  his  post.  "  Keinforce- 
ments,"  said  he,  "  are  preparing  to  hasten  to  my  assistance  ; 
it  can  not  be  long  before  they  arrive.  I  am,  too,  in  daily  ex 
pectation  of  reciving  information  whether  you  may  be  dis 
charged  or  not.  Until  then  you  must  not,  and  shall  not  retire. 
I  have  done  with  entreaty — it  has  been  used  long  enough — I 
will  attempt  it  no  more.  You  must  now  determine  whether 
you  will  go  or  peaceably  remain.  If  you  still  persist  in  your 
determination  to  move  forcibly  off,  the  point  between  us  shall 
soon  be  decided." 

He  paused.  ISTo  one  answered  ;  no  one  moved.  "  I  de 
mand  an  explicit  answer,"  said  the  General.  There  was  still 
no  response.  He  ordered  the  artillerymen  to  be  ready  with 


472  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

their  matches,  himself  remaining  in  front  of  the  mutineers,  and 
within  line  of  fire.  The  men  now  evidently  hesitated.  Whis 
pers  ran  along  the  line  recommending  a  return  to  duty.  Soon 
the  officers  stepped  forward  and  assured  the  General  that  the 
troops  were  willing  to  remain  at  the  fort  until  the  arrival 
of  reinforcements,  or  of  the  answer  to  General  Jackson's 
inquiries  respecting  their  term  of  service.  The  men  were 
dismissed  to  their  quarters,  and  the  General  was  once  more 
triumphant. 

It  is  noticeahle,  and  should  be  mentioned  to  the  credit  of 
the  voluntary  principle,  that  there  was  not  much  individual 
desertion  from  this  army.  A  western  volunteer  returning 
home  from  the  wars  with  the  brand  of  deserter  upon  his 
name  could  never  more  hope  for  the  respect  of  his  neighbors. 
Hence  the  desire  of  these  men  to  march  off  in  a  body  ;  hence 
their  special  pleading  with  regard  to  their  term  of  service  ; 
hence  their  return  en  masse  to  duty.  All  these  things  should 
be  duly  considered.  The  experience  of  these  wars  shows  both 
the  strength  and  the  weakness  of  a  volunteer  force ;  shows 
what  it  can  be  trusted  to  do,  and  what  it  can  not ;  shows 
the  secret  of  its  strength,  and  the  secret  of  its  weakness. 
Kightly  organized,  well  commanded,  justly  compensated,  a 
volunteer  force  will  be  able  to  effect  all  that  the  United 
States  ever  ought  to  require  of  armed  men.  And  this  de 
scription  of  force  being  our  main  reliance  for  defense  and 
tranquillity,  the  conditions  upon  which  alone  good  service 
can  be  expected  of  it  is  an  inquiry  of  national  importance. 
Therefore  it  is  that  I  have  thought  it  best  to  linger  among 
these  distressing  scenes,  rather  than  hurry  over  them  to 
events  which  show  the  volunteer  system  in  a  very  different 
light, 

Jackson  had  triumphed  only  so  far  as  to  secure  the 
presence  of  the  men  at  the  post.  He  now  made  an  effort  to 
restore  his  army  to  contentment.  The  near  approach  of 
General  Cocke  having  strengthened  his  position,  he  resolved 
to  permit  the  homesick  brigade  to  march  to  Tennessee,  there 
to  be  dismissed  or  retained  as  the  Governor  should  decide. 


1813.]      MUTINY    IN    THE     MIDST     OF    PLENTY.        473 

Before  doing  so,  however,  he  made  one  last  attempt  to  re 
awaken  their  dormant  ambition  and  patriotic  feeling.  With 
the  assistance  of  his  aid-de-camp,  Major  Keid,  he  drew  up 
another  address,  which  was  read  to  the  soldiers  by  Keid  in 
Jackson's  presence.  Nothing  better  of  its  kind  could  be 
written  by  any  man  than  this  composition. 

"  On  the  12th  of  December,  1812,"  it  began,  "  you  assembled  at  the 
call  of  your  country.  Your  professions  of  patriotism,  and  ability  to  endure 
fatigue,  were  at  once  tested  by  the  inclemency  of  the  weather.  Breaking 
your  way  through  sheets  of  ice,  you  descended  the  Mississippi,  and  reached 
the  point  at  which  you  were  ordered  to  be  halted  and  dismissed.  All  this 
you  bore  without  murmuring.  Finding  that  your  services  were  not  needed, 
the  means  for  marching  you  back  were  procured ;  every  difficulty  was  sur 
mounted,  and,  as  soon  as  the  point  from  which  you  embarked  was  regained, 
the  order  for  your  dismissal  was  carried  into  effect.  The  promptness  with 
which  you  assembled,  the  regularity  of  your  conduct,  your  attention  to 
your  duties,  the  determination  manifested,  on  every  occasion,  to  carry  into 
effect  the  wishes  and  will  of  your  government,  placed  you  on  elevated 
ground.  You  not  only  distinguished  yourselves,  but  gave  to  your  State  a 
distinguished  rank  with  her  sisters ;  and  led  your  government  to  believe 
that  the  honor  of  the  nation  would  never  be  tarnished  when  entrusted  to 
the  holy  keeping  of  the  '  Volunteers  of  Tennessee.' 

"  In  the  progress  of  a  war,  which  the  implacable  and  eternal  enemy  of 
our  independence  induced  to  be  waged,  we  found  that,  without  cause  on 
our  part,  a  portion  of  the  Creek  nation  was  added  to  the  number  of  our 
foes.  To  put  it  down,  the  first  glance  of  the  administration  fell  on  you : 
and  you  were  again  summoned  to  the  field  of  honor.  In  full  possession  of 
your  former  feelings,  that  summons  was  cheerfully  obeyed.  Before  your 
enemy  thought  you  in  motion,  you  were  at  Tallushatches  and  Talladega. 
The  thunder  of  your  arms  was  a  signal  to  them  that  the  slaughter  of  your 
countrymen  was  about  to  be  avenged.  You  fought,  you  conquered  ! 
Barely  enough  of  the  foe  escaped  to  recount  to  their  savage  associates  your 
deeds  of  valor.  You  returned  to  this  place  loaded  with  laurels  and  the  ap 
plauses  of  your  country. 

"  Can  it  be,  that  these  brave  men  are  about  to  become  the  tarnishers 
of  their  own  reputation! — the  destroyers  of  a  name  which  does  them  so 
much  honor  ?  Yes,  it  is  a  truth  too  well  disclosed,  that  cheerfulness  has 
been  exchanged  for  complaints : — munnurings  and  discontents  alone  pre 
vail.  Men  who  a  little  while  since  were  offering  up  prayers  for  permission 
to  chastise  the  merciless  savage — who  burned  with  impatience  to  teach 
them  how  much  they  had  hitherto,  been  indebted  to  our  forbearance,  are 


474  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

now,  when  they  could  so  easily  attain  their  wishes,  seeking  to  be  dis 
charged.  The  heart  of  your  general  has  been  pierced.  The  first  object  of 
his  military  affections,  and  the  first  glory  of  his  life,  were  the  volunteers  of 
Tennessee  !  The  very  name  recalls  to  him  a  thousand  endearing  recollec 
tions.  But  these  men — these  volunteers,  have  become  mutineers.  The 
feelings  he  would  have  indulged,  your  general  has  been  compelled  to  sup 
press — he  has  been  compelled  by  a  regard  to  that  subordination,  so  neces 
sary  to  the  support  of  every  army,  and  which  he  is  bound  to  have  ob 
served,  to  check  the  disorder  which  would  have  destroyed  you.  He  has 
interposed  his  authority  for  your  safety — to  prevent  you  from  disgracing 
yourselves  and  your  country.  Tranquillity  has  been  restored  in  our  camp — 
contentment  shall  also  be  restored ;  this  can  be  done  only  by  permitting 
those  to  retire  whose  dissatisfaction  proceeds  from  causes  that  can  not  be 
controlled.  This  permission  will  now  be  given.  Your  country  will  dis 
pense  with  your  services,  if  you  have  no  longer  a  regard  for  that  fame 
which  you  have  so  nobly  earned  for  yourselves  and  her.  Yes,  soldiers, 
you  who  were  once  so  brave,  and  to  whom  honor  was  so  dear,  shall  be 
permitted  to  return  to  your  homes,  if  you  still  desire  it.  But  in  what  lan- 
guagef  when  you  arrive,  will  you  address  your  families  and  friends  ?  Will 
you  tell  them  that  you  abandoned  your  general  and  your  late  associates  in 
arms  within  fifty  miles  of  a  savage  enemy ;  who  equally  delights  in  shed 
ding  the  blood  of  the  innocent  female  and  her  sleeping  babe,  as  that  of  the 
warrior  contending  in  battle  ?  Lamentable,  disgraceful  tale !  If  your  dis 
positions  are  really  changed  ;  if  you  fear  an  enemy  you  so  lately  con 
quered  ;  this  day  will  prove  it.  I  now  put  it  to  yourselves ;  determine 
upon  the  part  you  will  act,  influenced  only  by  the  suggestions  of  your  own 
hearts,  and  your  own  understandings.  All  who  prefer  an  inglorious  re 
tirement,  shall  be  ordered  to  Nashville,  to  be  discharged,  as  the  President 
or  the  Governor  may  direct  Those  who  choose  to  remain,  and  unite  with 
their  general  in  the  further  prosecution  of  the  campaign,  can  do  so,  and 
will  thereby  furnish  a  proof  that  they  have  been  greatly  traduced ;  and 
that  although  disaffection  and  cowardice  have  reached  the  hearts  of  some, 
it  has  not  reached  theirs.  To  such  my  assurance  is  given,  that  former  ir 
regularities  will  not  be  attributed  to  them.  They  shall  be  immediately  or 
ganized  into  a  separate  corps,  under  officers  of  their  own  choice ;  and,  in 
a  little  while,  it  is  confidently  believed  an  opportunity  will  be  afforded  of 
adding  to  the  laurels  you  have  already  won."* 

It  seems  strange  to  us,  "  who  sit  at  home  at  ease/'  that  so 
eloquent  and  pathetic  an  appeal  as  this  should  have  failed  of 
its  designed  effect.  Such  was  the  fact,  however.  One  man 

*  Eaton. 


1813.]      MUTINY     IN     THE     MIDST     OF     PLENTY.      475 

alone,  Captain  Williamson,  offered  to  remain.  The  General 
could  do  no  less  than  perform  his  promise,  and  the  brigade  of 
volunteers  were  soon  in  swift  march  toward  the  frontiers  of 
Tennessee,  resenting  the  mode  of  their  dismissal,  and  filling 
the  borders  with  their  complaints. 

It  is  but  just  to  admit  that  these  men  were  evidently  con 
vinced  of  their  right  to  retire.  On  their  return  to  Tennessee, 
they  published  an  elaborate  defense  of  their  conduct,  a  copy 
of  which,  in  justice  to  them,  is  printed  as  an  appendix  to  this 
volume. 

General  Cocke  reached  Fort  Strother  on  the  12th  of  De 
cember  with  his  division  of  two  thousand  men.  Jackson 
learned,  however,  that  the  term  of  service  of  more  than  half 
of  this  body  was  on  the  very  point  of  expiring,  and  that  none 
of  them  had  longer  than  a  month  to  serve.  Nor  were  any  of 
them  provided  with  clothing  suitable  for  a  winter  campaign. 
Ketaining  eight  hundred  of  these  troops,  who  owed  still  a 
month's  service,  Jackson  ordered  General  Cocke  to  march  the 
rest  of  his  division  back  to  the  settlements,  there  to  dismiss 
them,  and  to  enroll  a  new  force,  properly  provided,  and  en 
gaged  to  serve  six  months.  He  addressed  the  departing  troops, 
entreating  them  to  join  the  new  army  as  soon  as  they  had 
procured  their  clothing,  and  return  to  him  and  aid  in  com 
pleting  the  conquest  of  the  enemy. 

These  were  dark  days  for  General  Jackson.  Every  thing 
went  wrong.  The  return  of  so  many  troops,  bearing  with 
them  the  feelings  they  did,  giving  out  that,  after  enduring 
privations,  gaining  victories  and  holding  the  savages  in  check 
for  two  months,  they  had  been  refused  an  honorable  dismissal, 
and  sent  home,  almost  in  disgrace,  threw  a  damper  upon  the 
efforts  to  raise  new  men,  and  spread  discontent  among  those 
already  engaged.  Even  the  horsemen  of  General  Coffee,  who 
had  been  allowed  to  leave  Fort  Strother  for  a  while,  to  recruit 
their  horses  at  home,  could  not  be  induced  to  return  to  duty. 
Assembling  at  the  call  of  the  gallant  Coffee,  they  heard  the 
tale  of  the  returning  troops,  caught  their  spirit,  became  mu 
tinous,  riotous  and  unmanageable.  At  length,  they  broke 


476  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

away  in  a  tumultuous  mass  toward  home.  General  Coffee 
galloped  in  pursuit,  accompanied  by  the  eloquent  Blackburn, 
and  both  addressed  the  fugitives  with  all  the  persuasive  en 
ergy  of  which  they  were  capable.  But  in  vain.  Nearly  to  a 
man  the  cavalry  brigade  rode  away,  rioting  and  wasting  as 
they  went,  and  were  seen  as  an  organized  body  no  more. 

Affairs  were  little  better  at  Jackson's  own  camp.  He  had 
fourteen  hundred  men  at  Fort  Strother,  of  whom  eight  hun 
dred  would  be  free  to  return  home  in  four  weeks.  The  re 
maining  six  hundred  were  militia,  who  had  been  called  out, 
upon  the  receipt  of  the  news  of  Fort  Mims,  by  an  act  of  the 
Legislature,  which,  most  unfortunately,  did  not  specify  any 
term  of  service.  Three  months,  said  the  militia,  is  the  term 
established  by  King  Precedent.  By  no  means,  replied  Jack 
son  ;  the  omission  in  the  act  must  be  supplied  by  the  phrase, 
for  the  war.  The  militia  were  summoned,  he  maintained, 
for  the  purpose  of  avenging  Fort  Mims,  and  conquering  a 
lasting  peace.  Those  objects  accomplished,  the  work  for 
which  the  troops  were  engaged  would  be  done,  and  they 
would  be  entitled  to  an  honorable  discharge.  But  not  till 
then. 

Here  were  the  elements  of  new  discontents  and  new  mu 
tinies.  The  three  months  would  expire  on  the  4th  of  Jan 
uary,  and  already  the  latter  half  of  December  was  gliding 
away.  Thus,  in  two  weeks,  Jackson  was  threatened  with 
the  loss  of  six  hundred  of  his  troops  ;  and  in  four  weeks 
the  remaining  eight  hundred  would  certainly  depart.  The 
campaign  was  falling  to  pieces  in  every  direction.  Jack 
son's  military  career  seemed  about  to  close  in  disgrace,  and 
the  glory  of  the  Tennessee  volunteers  to  be  extinguished  for 
ever. 

But  this  was  not  all.  Disaster  menaced  every  assailable 
portion  of  the  South-west.  Letters  came  from  General  Pinck- 
ney,  the  chief  in  command  in  that  region,  ordering  General 
Jackson  to  hold  all  his  posts,  since  it  had  become  a  matter 
of  the  first  national  importance  to  deprive  the  British  of 
their  Indian  allies.  A  letter  written  from  General  Coffee's 


1813.]     MUTINY     IN     THE    MIDST      OF     PLENTY.      477 

camp  at  Huntsville,  December  23d,  indicates  the  state  of 
things  :  "  I  trust/'  says  this  unknown  writer,  "  that  the  sys^ 
tern  of  short  service,  wretched  as  it  is  inefficient,  and  expen 
sive  above  all  others,  will  yet  enable  Jackson  to  occupy  till 
spring  the  ground  he  has  won.  Perhaps  the  return  of  moder 
ate  weather,  and  great  efforts  meanwhile,  may  collect  around 
his  banner  an  army  sufficient  to  effect  the  complete  discom 
fiture  and  prostration  of  the  Creek  power.  This,  however, 
will  be  every  day  a  work  of  greater  difficulty.  The  English 
have  already  appeared  in  force  at  Pensacola,  seven  sail  hav 
ing  troops  on  board,  besides  two  bomb  vessels.  Orleans  will 
be  menaced.  Mobile  is  considered  in  great  danger.  The 
force  on  the  Tombigbee  waters,  and  the  third  regiment  as 
cending  the  Alabama,  will  be  called  to  its  defense.  This 
gives  the  Creeks  breathing  time,  and  lessens  the  force  destined 
to  crush  them.  Augustine,  too,  will  doubtless  be  occupied 
by  British  troops,  and  from  these  points  arms,  ammunition, 
and  perhaps  men  and  leaders,  will  be  pushed  up  to  the  aid 
of  the  Upper  and  Middle  Creeks.  The  Seminoles,  and  the 
runaway  negroes  among  them,  may  be  turned  loose  upon  the 
sea-coast  of  Georgia/' 

To  this  I  will  append  a  letter  from  General  Coffee  him 
self  to  Captain  Donelson,  written  on  the  22 d  of  December, 
1813,  just  before  the  violent  dispersion  of  his  brigade  : 


"  I  have  been  confined/'  wrote  Coffee  from  Huntsville,  "at  this  place 
ten  days  by  indisposition,  but  am  at  present  much  amended.  This  day, 
for  the  first  time,  I  rode  out  a  mile,  and  hope  in  three  or  four  days  more 
to  be  able  to  proceed  on  after  my  brigade,  which  is  now  halted  on  the 
south  side  of  the  Tennessee,  at  Fort  Deposit,  awaiting  the  orders  of  the  com 
manding  General,  and  I  presume  he  is  waiting  to  get  ready  to  make  a 
quick  movement  against  the  enemy  before  he  calls  the  mounted  men  from 
where  they  can  get  forage  for  their  horses.  General  Jackson  informs  me 
that  his  spies  (the  friendly  Indians)  teL1  him  that  the  warriors  are  collect 
ing  in  a  large  body  about  sixty  miles  beyond  his  head-quarters,  the  Ten 
Islands  ;  that  they  say  they  intend  to  destroy  Lashley's  Fort,  at  Talladega, 
of  friendly  Indians,  and  then  they  intend  to  attack  him.  I  do  not  believe 
they  intend  to  attack  him,  unless  they  find  him  without  a  force.  In  that 
VOL.  I. — 31 


478  LIFE    OF    ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

case,  perhaps  they  may.  If  we  do  not  have  a  battle  in  two  weeks,  it  is 
not  my  opinion  we  shall  have  one  this  winter. 

"  Great  discontent  prevails  in  all  our  camps.  The  men  appear  to  have 
turned  their  faces  towards  home,  and  nothing  can  induce  them  to  stay. 
Each  man  seems  to  keep  his  calendar  before  him,  and  the  very  moment 
his  three  months  expire  he  demands  his  discharge.  The  same  with  the 
East  Tennesseeans ;  a  part  of  them  have  been  discharged  since  they  joined 
us.  On  the  24th  of  this  month,  and  within  two  or  three  days  after,  almost 
the  whole  of  our  army  will  claim  their  discharge.  We  must  (but  I  fear  it 
will  be  difficult)  keep  up  the  post  at  Fort  Strother  until  a  new  army  can 
be  raised  somehow.  We  expect  here  to-morrow  a  number  of  troops  with 
Colonel  Carroll,  from  Tennessee,  of  some  kind,  but  what  I  don't  know. 
General  Roberts  passed  here  to-day,  with  two  hundred  fresh  volunteers, 
to  join  the  army.  This  county  is  about  to  send  out  two  hundred  and  fifty 
men,  and  some  are  expected  from  East  Tennessee.  All  those  added  will 
keep  the  post  until  a  new  army  can  be  raised,  provided  proper  steps  are 
taken  to  raise  one.  But  I  fear  very  much  the  energies  of  our  Governor. 
All  is  in  his  power  if  he  has  the  will. 

"  You  can  have  no  idea  of  the  clamors  of  the  men.  All  disorder  here, 
and  daily  desertion,  etc.,  etc.  General  Jackson  has  the  most  laborious 
task  that  man  ever  bore.  I  am  told  he  supports  his  usual  spirits,  and  keeps 
in  good  health ;  and  all  other  officers  who  do  their  duty  are  not  idle  or  a 
little  perplexed.  Energy  and  perseverance  will  do  a  great  deal,  but  God 
knows  how  much  it  will  do  in  the  present  case.  I  hope  all  will  be  well, 
but  we  have  much  to  fear.  This  is  only  intended  for  your  information,  and 
not  for  general  view.  It  would  only  tend  to  alarm  the  fears  of  friends  and 
discourage  the  [torn],  as  for  myself,  I  intend  to  keep  my  steady  course, 
and  not  be  perplexed,  let  things  go  as  they  may."* 


CHAPTER     XLIV. 

THE     NEW     ARMY. 

How  anxiously,  in  such  circumstances,  General  Jackson 
looked  for  news  from  Tennessee  may  be  imagined.  Help 
from  that  quarter  alone  could  save  him ;  and  that  help  he 
had  implored  from  Governor  Blount,  who  alone  could  grant 

*  MSS.  of  Historical  Society  of  Tennessee. 


1813.]  THE     NEW     AEMY.  479 

it.  The  expected  dispatch  from  Nashville  reached  Fort 
Strother  at  length,  and  proved  to  "be  a  most  disheartening 
response  to  Jackson's  entreaties.  The  Governor  feared  to 
transcend  his  authority.  Having  called  out  all  the  troops 
authorized  by  Congress  and  the  Legislature,  what  could  he 
do  more  ?  The  campaign  had  failed,  he  said,  and  he  advised 
General  Jackson  to  give  up  a  struggle  which  could  have  no 
favorable  issue,  and  return  home  to  wait  until  the  general 
government  should  provide  the  means  requisite  for  carrying 
on  the  war  with  vigor.* 

*  The  following  is  a  copy  of  Governor  Blount's  letter  on  this  occasion : — 

NASHVILLE,  December  22,  1813. 

DEAR  SIR  :  Since  writing  you  fully  of  this  date,  I  have  received,  by  Major 
David  Smith,  your  very  interesting  letter,  replete  with  patriotic  sentiments,  dated 
the  15th  inst.  You  will  see,  by  letter  of  the  10th,  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  how 
I  am  placed  with  respect  to  instructions,  which,  as  it  relates  to  the  good  of  the 
service,  and  a  most  righteous  cause,  in  support  of  which  you  are  most  laudably 
and  zealously  engaged,  I  much  regret.  The  unfortunate  construction  given  by 
the  troops,  so  generally,  respecting  their  term  of  service,  at  this  very  interesting 
crisis  in  public  affairs,  in  this  section  of  the  Union,  is  to  be  lamented ;  but  since 
it  is  the  most  general,  and  likely  to  become  almost  the  universal  construction  in  the 
camp;  and  since  there  is  no  authority  vested  here,  that  can  be  interposed,  to  give 
a  counter  current  of  opinion,  with  the  prospect  of  effecting  any  permanent  good 
to  the  service,  or  to  the  cause  you  are  engaged  in  ;  and  as  it  is  likely  that  my 
letter  of  the  10th  instant  will  produce  new  orders  for  a  term  of  service  yet  to 
commence,  which,  under  all  circumstances,  would  be  most  judicious  in  govern 
ment  to  give,  the  better  to  effect  the  objects  of  the  campaign,  more  especially  as 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  a  British  fleet  has  arrived  at  Pensacola;  I  can  not 
doubt  but  that  the  government  will  shortly  give  new  instructions  to  have  a  new 
force  organized,  to  effect  the  objects  of  the  campaign,  and  to  oppose  the  British ; 
and  that  the  President  will  be  satisfied  to  consider  that  the  three  mouths'  tour  per 
formed  by  your  and  by  General  Cocke's  detachments,  with  so  much  good  to  the 
service,  and  with  so  much  credit  to  yourselves,  may  terminate  the  present  cam 
paign.  I  can  think  of  no  better  plan  to  pursue,  so  as  to  keep  up  the  spirits  of 
all ;  for,  when  once  militia,  or  any  other  troops  take  it  into  their  heads  that  they 
have  served  their  tour  of  duty,  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  convince  them  that  to 
serve  longer  would  be  either  just  or  laudable ;  and  to  attempt  to  keep  up  a  force 
by  voluntary  enrollment,  without  the  authority  of  government,  would,  as  I  fear, 
be  a  vain  attempt,  notwithstanding  it  would  be  highly  laudable  at  this  time,  if  it 
were  practicable ;  patching  up  an  army  that  way,  would  effect  no  permanent 
good.  I  am  not  at  liberty  as  an  executive  officer,  to  advise  you,  who  hold  a 
command  in  the  service  of  the  United  States.  I  am  incapable  of  willingly  saying 


480  LIFE     OF     ANDEEW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

Not  for  one  instant  did  Jackson  concur  in  this  view  of  the 
situation.  He  was  of  that  temper  which  gained  new  deter 
mination  from  other  men's  despair.  The  last  ounce  stiffened 
his  back,  not  broke  it.  He  went  to  his  tent  and  wrote  to  the 
Governor  the  best  letter  he  ever  wrote  in  his  life — one  of 
those  historical  epistles  which  do  the  work  of  a  campaign  in 
rolling  back  the  tide  of  events. 

"Had  your  wish/'  wrote  Jackson,  "  that  I  should  dis 
charge  a  part  of  my  force,  and  retire  with  the  residue  into 
the  settlements,  assumed  the  form  of  a  positive  order,  it 
might  have  furnished  me  some  apology  for  pursuing  such  a 

or  doing  any  thing  to  injure  the  service,  or  that  which  would  injuriously  affect 
the  reputation  of  deserving  men,  or  the  standing  of  an  able  and  patriotic  hero 
and  general;  but,  as  a  friend  to  my  government,  most  ardently  desirous  that 
every  step  taken  in  this  quarter  may  promote  the  good  of  the  service,  and  the 
standing  of  those  who  deserve  well  pf  their  country,  I  do  not  see  what  im 
portant  good  can  grow  out  of  your  continuing  at  an  advanced  post,  in  an 
enemy's  country,  with  a  handful  of  brave  men.  "Would  it  not,  under  all  cir 
cumstances,  be  most  likely  to  be  attended  with  good  consequences  for  you  to 
return  to  the  frontier  of  Tennessee,  and,  with  your  patriotic  force,  defend  our 
frontier,  where  provision  can  be  readily  afforded  on  better  terms  to  government, 
bringing  with  you  your  baggage  and  supplies;  and  there,  on  the  frontier, 
await  the  order  of  government,  or  until  I  can  be  authorized  to  reinforce  you,  or 
to  call  a  new  force  ?  At  this  time,  I  really  do  not  feel  authorized  to  order  a 
draft,  or  I  would,  with  the  greatest  of  all  pleasures  I  could  feel,  do  it.  "Were 
I  to  attempt  it  in  an  unauthorized  way,  it  would  injure,  as  I  think,  the  public 
service,  which  I  would  rather  die  than  do.  I  could  not  positively  assure  the 
men  that  they  would  be  paid. 

I  send  you  a  copy  of  the  President's  Message,  and  am  gratified  to  see  the 
handsome  terms  he  uses  in  speaking  of  your  and  of  General  Coffee's  battles.  Ho 
seems  to  mean  something  about  Pensacola,  and,  to  effect  his  object  best,  a  new 
force  should  certainly  be  organized.  Many  who  are  now,  and  have  been,  on  the 
campaign,  would  go  again  on  that  business,  if  they  are  pleased  with  the  Presi 
dent's  decision  respecting  their  term  of  service,  under  the  late  orders.  I  shall, 
from  what  I  have  said  about  the  propriety  of  your  return  to  the  Tennessee  fron 
tier,  feel  bound  to  send  a  copy  of  this  to  the  "War  Department,  for  the  informa 
tion  of  government,  and  by  way  of  apology  for  offering  such  an  opinion  to  an 
officer  in  the  service  of  the  United  States. 

I  am,  with  highest  respect  and  most  sincere  regard,  your  friend, 

WILLIE  BLOUNT. 

Major  General  ANDEEW  JACKSON,  United  States  service,  Creek  Nation. 


1813.]  THE     NEW     ARMY.  481 

course,  but  by  no  means  a  full  justification.  As  you  would 
have  no  power  to  give  such  an  order,  I  could  not  be  inculpa- 
ble  in  obeying,  with  my  eyes  open  to  the  fatal  consequences 
that  would  attend  it.  But  a  bare  recommendation,  founded, 
as  I  am  satisfied  it  must  be,  on  the  artful  suggestions  of  those 
fireside  patriots  who  seek  in  a  failure  of  the  expedition  an 
excuse  for  their  own  supineness,  and  upon  the  misrepresenta 
tions  of  the  discontented  from  the  army,  who  wish  it  to  be 
believed  that  the  difficulties  which  overcame  their  patriotism 
are  wholy  insurmountable,  would  afford  me  but  a  feeble  shield 
against  the  reproaches  of  my  country  or  my  conscience.  Be 
lieve  me,  my  respected  friend,  the  remarks  I  make  proceed 
from  the  purest  personal  regard.  If  you  would  preserve  your 
reputation,  or  that  of  the  State  over  which  you  preside,  you 
must  take  a  straightforward,  determined  course,  regardless 
of  the  applause  or  censure  of  the  populace,  and  of  the  fore 
bodings  of  that  dastardly  and  designing  crew,  who  at  a  time 
like  this  may  be  expected  to  clamor  continually  in  your  ears. 
The  very  wretches  who  now  beset  you  with  evil  counsel  will 
be  the  first,  should  the  measures  which  they  recommend 
eve-ituate  in  disaster,  to  call  down  imprecations  on  your 
head  and  load  you  with  reproaches.  Your  country  is  in 
danger  ;  apply  its  resources  to  its  defense.  Can  any  course 
be  more  plain  ?  Do  you,  my  friend,  at  such  a  moment  as  the 
present,  sit  with  your  arms  folded,  and  your  heart  at  ease, 
waiting  a  solution  of  your  doubts  and  definitions  of  yours 
powers  ?  Do  you  wait  for  special  instructions  from  the  Sec 
retary  at  War,  which  it  is  impossible  for  you  to  receive  in  time 
for  the  danger  that  threatens  ?  How  did  the  venerable  Shel 
by  act  under  similar  circumstances,  or  rather  under  circum 
stances  by  no  means,  so  critical  ?  Did  he  wait  for  orders  to  do 
what  every  man  of  sense  knew — what  every  patriot  felt  to  be 
right  ?  He  did  not ;  and  yet  how  highly  and  justly  did  the 
government  extol  his  manly  and  energetic  conduct !  and  how 
dear  has  his  name  become  to  every  friend  of  his  country  ! 

"  You  say  that  an  order  to  bring  the  necessary  quota  of 
men  into  the  field  has  been  given,  and  that  of  course  your 


482  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1813. 

power  ceases  ;  and,  although  you  are  made  sensible  that  the 
order  has  been  wholly  neglected,  you  can  take  no  measure  to 
remedy  the  omission.  Widely  different,  indeed,  is  my  opin 
ion.  I  consider  it  your  imperious  duty,  when  the  men,  called 
for  by  your  authority,  founded  upon  that  of  the  government. 
are  known  not  to  be  in  the  field,  to  see  that  they  be  brought 
there  ;  and  to  take  immediate  measures  with  the  officer,  who, 
charged  with  the  execution  of  your  order,  omits  or  neglects  to 
do  it.  As  the  executive  of  the  State,  it  is  your  duty  to  see 
that  the  full  quota  of  troops  be  constantly  kept  in  the  field 
for  the  time  they  have  been  required.  You  are  responsible  to 
the  government,  your  officer  to  you.  Of  what  avail  is  it  to 
give  an  order  if  it  be  never  executed,  and  may  be  disobeyed 
with  impunity  ?  Is  it  by  empty  mandates  that  we  can  hope 
to  conquer  our  enemies,  and  save  our  defenseless  frontiers 
from  butchery  and  devastation  ?  Believe  me,  my  valued 
friend,  there  are  times  when  it  is  highly  criminal  to  shrink 
from  responsibility,  or  scruple  about  the  exercise  of  our  pow 
ers.  There  %  are  times  when  we  must  disregard  punctilious 
etiquette,  and  think  only  of  serving  our  country.  What  is 
really  our  present  situation  ?  The  enemy  we  have  been  sent 
to  subdue  may  be  said,  if  we  stop  at  this,  io  be  only  exaspe 
rated.  The  commander-in-chief,  General  Pinckney,  who  sup 
poses  me  by  this  time  prepared  for  renewed  operations,  has 
ordered  me  to  advance  and  form  a  junction  with  the  Georgia 
army  ;  and  upon  the  expectation  that  I  will  do  so  are  all  his 
arrangements  formed  for  the  prosecution  of  the  campaign. 
Will  it  do  to  defeat  his  plans,  and  jeopardize  the  safety  of 
the  Georgia  army  ?  The  general  government,  too,  believe, 
and  have  a  right  to  believe,  that  we  have  now  not  less  than 
five  thousand  men  in  the  heart  of  the  enemy's  country  ;  and 
on  this  opinion  are  all  their  calculations  bottomed  ;  and  must 
they  all  be  frustrated,  and  I  become  the  instrument  by  which 
it  is  done  ?  God  forbid  ! 

"  You  advise  me  to  discharge  or  dismiss  from  service, 
until  the  will  of  the  President  can  be  known,  such  portion  of 
the  militia  as  have  rendered  three  months'  service.  This 


1813.]  THE     NEW     ARMY.  483 

advice  astonishes  me  even  more  than  the  former.  I  have  no 
such  discretionary  power  ;  and  if  I  had,  it  would  be  impolitic 
and  ruinous  to  exercise  it.  I  believed  the  militia  who  were 
not  specially  received  for  a  shorter  period  were  engaged  for 
six  months,  unless  the  objects  of  the  expedition  should  be 
sooner  attained  ;  and  in  this  opinion  I  was  greatly  strength 
ened  by  your  letter  of  the  15th,  in  which  you  say,  when 
answering  my  inquiry  upon  this  subject,  'the  militia  are 
detached  for  six  months'  service  ;'  nor  did  I  know,  or  sup 
pose,  you  had  a  different  opinion,  until  the  arrival  of  your 
last  letter.  This  opinion  must,  I  suppose,  agreeably  to  your 
request,  be  made  known  to  General  Koberts'  brigade,  and 
then  the  consequences  are  not  difficult  to  be  foreseen.  Every 
man  belonging  to  it  will  abandon  me  on  the  4th  of  next 
month  ;  nor  shall  I  have  the  means  of  preventing  it,  but  by 
the  application  of  force,  which,  under  such  circumstances,  I 
shall  not  be  at  liberty  to  use.  I  have  labored  hard  to  recon 
cile  these  men  to  a  continuance  in  service  until  they  could  be 
honorably  discharged,  and  had  hoped  I  had,  in  a  great 
measure,  succeeded  ;  but  your  opinion,  operating  with  their 
own  prejudices,  will  give  a  sanction  to  their  conduct,  and 
render  useless  any  further  attempts.  They  will  go  ;  but  I 
can  neither  discharge  nor  dismiss  them.  Shall  I  be  told, 
that  as  they  will  go,  it  may  as  well  be  peaceably  permitted  ? 
Can  that  be  any  good  reason  why  I  should  do  an  unauthorized 
act  ?  Is  it  a  good  reason  why  I  should  violate  the  order  of 
my  superior  officer,  and  evince  a  willingness  to  defeat  the 
purposes  of  my  government  ?  And  wherein  does  the  c  sound 
policy'  of  the  measures  that  have  been  recommended  consist  ? 
or  in  what  way  are  they  '  likely  to  promote  the  public  good  ?' 
Is  it  sound  policy  to  abandon  a  conquest  thus  far  made,  and 
deliver  up  to  havoc,  or  add  to  the  number  of  our  enemies, 
those  friendly  Creeks  and  Cherokees,  who,  relying  on  our 
protection,  have  espoused  our  cause,  and  aided  us  with  their 
arms  ?  Is  it  good  policy  to  turn  loose  upon  our  defenseless 
frontiers  five  thousand  exasperated  savages,  to  reek  their 
hands  once  more  in  the  blood  of  our  citizens  ?  What ! 


484  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

retrograde  under  such  circumstances  !  I  will  perish  first. 
No,  I  will  do  my  duty  :  I  will  hold  the  posts  I  have  estab 
lished,  until  ordered  to  abandon  them  by  the  commanding 
general,  or  die  in  the  struggle  ;  long  since  have  I  determined 
not  to  seek  the  preservation  of  life  at  the  sacrifice  of  reputa 
tion. 

"  But  our  frontiers,  it  seems,  are  to  be  defended,  and  by 
whom  ?  By  the  very  force  that  is  now  recommended  to  be 
dismissed  :  for  I  am  first  told  to  retire  into  the  settlements 
and  protect  the  frontiers  ;  next,  to  discharge  my  troops  ; 
aud  then,  that  no  measures  can  be  taken  for  raising  others. 
No,  my  friend,  if  troops  be  given  me,  it  is  not  by  loitering  on 
the  frontiers  that  I  will  seek  to  give  protection  ;  they  are  to 
be  defended,  if  defended  at  all,  in  a  very  different  manner — 
by  carrying  the  war  into  the  heart  of  the  enemy's  country. 
All  other  hopes  of  defense  are  more  visionary  than  dreams. 
What,  then,  is  to  be  done  ?  I'll  tell  you  what.  You  have 
only  to  act  with  the  energy  and  decision  the  crisis  demands, 
and  all  will  be  well.  Send  me  a  force  engaged  for  six  months, 
and  I  will  answer  for  the  result ;  but  withhold  it,  and  all  is 
lost — the  reputation  of  the  State,  and  yours  and  mine  along 
with  it." 

This  letter  convinced  and  roused  Governor  Blount.  He 
forthwith  ordered  a  new  levy  of  twenty-five  hundred  men  to 
rendezvous  at  Fayetteville  on  the  28th  of  January,  to  serve 
for  three  months,  and  authorized  General  Cocke  to  obey 
Jackson's  order  for  raising  a  new  division  of  East  Tennessee- 
ans.  The  aspect  of  affairs  in  the  State  was  immediately 
changed.  The  noise  of  preparation  was  everywhere  heard. 
There  was  a  furbishing  of  arms  and  a  tramp  of  marching  men 
in  all  quarters  of  the  State.  In  a  few  days,  the  honorable 
scruples  of  the  Governor  were  completely  set  at  rest  by  a  dis 
patch  from  the  Secretary  of  War,  which  more  than  covered 
all  he  had  done,  and  sanctioned  any  further  requisition  of 
men  which  he  might  deem  necessary.  If  Jackson  could  but 
hold  his  position  a  few  weeks  longer,  there  was  every  prospect 
of  his  being  able  once  more  to  act  with  efficiency. 


1814.];  THE     NEW    ARMY.  485 

From  the  middle  of  December  to  the  middle  of  January, 
General  Jackson  was  called  upon  to  endure  every  description 
of  mortification  and  difficulty  known  to  border  warfare.  On 
the  4th  of  January,  his  six  hundred  militia,  in  spite  of  warn 
ing  and  entreaty,  and  after  scenes  of  violence  similar  to  those 
already  related,  marched  homeward.  On  the  14th,  the  eight 
hundred  of  General  Cocke's  division,  whose  term  of  service 
then  expired,  were  earnestly  besought  to  remain,  if  only  for 
twenty  days.  The  savages  were  in  motion  again,  and  threat 
ened  the  frontiers  of  Georgia.  Jackson  implored  these  men 
to  make  one  excursion  into  the  enemy's  country,  to  strike  one 
blow  at  them  for  the  purpose  of,  at  least,  diverting  or  divid 
ing  their  force,  and  giving  an  easier  victory  to  the  Georgia 
troops.  Bat,  no  ;  their  minds  were  set  resolutely  home 
ward,  and  away  they  marched,  leaving  him  with  a  mere  hand 
ful  of  men  to  guard  the  post.  Moreover,  the  new  recruits 
could  not  be  induced  to  engage  for  six  months.  Colonel 
Carroll,  rather  than  bring  back  no  men,  had  enlisted  a  body 
of  horse  for  two  months  only,  and  General  Koberts  returned 
with  infantry  engaged  for  three.  These  men  General  Jackson 
was  obliged  to  accept,  or  be  left  alone  in  the  wilderness. 

On  the  15th  of  January,  then,  we  find  the  General  at 
Fort  Strother  with  nine  hundred  raw  recruits,  who  had  come 
out  with  the  expectation  of  making  a  single  raid  into  the  In 
dian  territory,  and  then  to  return  to  narrate  their  exploits 
and  draw  their  pay.  Such  troops  it  is  dangerous  to  keep  in 
inaction  for  a  single  week.  The  regular  levies  from  Tennes 
see  could  not  be  expected  for  a  month  to  come.  The  neces 
sity  of  striking  a  blow  at  the  exulting  enemy  was  pressing. 
In  these  circumstances,  Jackson,  with  the  daring  prudence 
that  characterized  his  career,  resolved  upon  instant  action, 
and  gave  the  order  to  prepare  for  marching  against  the  foe. 


486  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

CHAPTER    XLV. 

THE      RAID      AND      ITS      RESULTS. 

OF  this  twelve  days'  "excursion/'  as  the  General  mildly 
termed  it,  into  the  Indian  country,  I  possess  several  published 
and  one  unpublished  narrative ;  but  none  so  complete  and 
vivid  as  that  contained  in  Jackson's  own  dispatch  to  General 
Pinckney,  written  upon  the  return  of  the  little  wild  army  to 
Fort  Strother.  Of  course,  the  best  face  was  put  upon  the 
affair  that  truth  and  charity  would  permit,  and  so  it  ought 
to  have  been.  Jackson  was  at  the  head  of  men  unused  to 
war,  and  totally  unacquainted  with  subordination  ;  men  of  the 
hunting  shirt  and  rifle,  with  their  powder  in  horns,  and  their 
bullets  in  their  pockets.  That  such  troops  should  have 
marched  not  in  the  most  orderly  manner,  and  that  some  of 
them,  discovering  too  late  that  a  battle  with  a  superior  force 
of  Indians  was  not  precisely  the  frolic  they  had  anticipated, 
should  have  given  way  to  a  temporary  panic,  might  have 
been  anticipated.  The  General's  dispatch  does  not  conceal 
these  things,  nor  slur  them  over.  The  objects  of  the  expe 
dition  were  accomplished  ;  but  that  the  power  of  the  Indians 
was  seriously  impaired,  or  their  confidence  much  shaken  by  it, 
is  not  pretended.  But  here  is  the  dispatch,  dated  January 
29th,  1814 : 

"I  had  the  honor,"  begins  the  General,  "of  informing  you 
in  a  letter  of  the  31st  ultimo  [express]  of  an  excursion  I  con 
templated  making  still  further  in  the  enemy's  country,  with 
the  new  raised  volunteers  from  Tennessee.  I  had  ordered 
those  troops  to  form  a  junction  with  me  on  the  10th  instant, 
but  they  did  not  arrive  until  the  14th.  Their  number,  in 
cluding  officers,  was  about  eight  hundred,  and  on  the  15th  I 
marched  them  across  the  river  to  graze  their  horses.  On  the 
next  day  I  followed  with  the  remainder  of  my  force,  consist 
ing  of  the  artillery  company,  with  one  six  pounder ;  one  com- 


1814.]         THE     RAID*    AND     ITS     RESULTS.  487 

pany  of  infantry  of  forty-eight  men  ;  two  companies  of  spies, 
commanded  by  Captains  Gordon  and  Kussell,  of  about  thirty 
men  each  ;  and  a  company  of  volunteer  officers,  headed  by 
General  Coffee,  who  had  been  abandoned  by  his  men,  and 
who  still  remained  in  the  field  awaiting  the  orders  of  the 
government ;  making  my  force,  exclusive  of  Indians,  nine 

hundred  and  thirty. 

#  #  «  $  $  •;;:-  # 

"  I  took  up  the  line  of  march  on  the  17th  instant,  and  on 
the  18th  encamped  at  Tallageda  Fort,  where  I  was  joined  by 
between  two  and  three  hundred  friendly  Indians  ;  sixty-five 
of  whom  were  Cherokees,  the  balance  Creeks.  Here  I  re 
ceived  your  letter  of  the  9th  instant,  stating  that  General 
Floyd  was  expected  to  make  a  movement  from  Cowetau  the 
next  day,  and  that  in  ten  days  thereafter  he  would  establish 
a  firm  position  at  Tuckbatchee  ;  and  also  a  letter  from  Colo 
nel  Snodgrass,  who  had  returned  to  Fort  Armstrong,  inform 
ing  me  that  an  attack  was  intended  to  be  soon  made  on  that 
fort  by  nine  hundred  of  the  enemy.  If  I  could  have  hesitated 
before,  I  could  now  hesitate  no  longer.  I  resolved  to  lose  no 
time  in  meeting  this  force,  which  was  understood  to  have 
been  collected  from  New  Yorcau,  Oakfuskie,  and  Ufauley 
towns,  and  were  concentrated  in  a  bend  of  the  Tallapoosa, 
near  the  mouth  of  a  creek,  called  Emuckfau,  and  on  an  island 
below  New  Yorcau. 

"  On  the  morning  of  the  20th,  your  letter  of  the  10th  in 
stant,  forwarded  by  M'Candles,  reached  me  at  the  Hillibee 
creek  ;  and  that  night  I  encamped  at  Enotachopco,  a  small 
Hillibee  village  about  twelve  miles  from  Emuckfau.  Here  I 
began  to  perceive  very  plainly  how  little  knowledge  my  spies 
had  of  the  country,  of  the  situation  of  the  enemy,  or  of  the 
distance  I  was  from  them.  The  insubordination  of  the  new 
troops,  and  the  want  of  skill  in  most  of  their  officers,  also 
became  more  and  more  apparent.  But  their  ardor  to  meet 
the  enemy  was  not  diminished  ;  and  I  had  sure  reliance  upon 
the  guards,  and  upon  the  company  of  old  volunteer  officers, 
and  upon  the  spies,  in  all  about  one  hundred  and  twenty-five. 


488  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

My  wishes  and  my  duty  remained  united,  and  I  was  deter 
mined  to  effect,  if  possible,  the  objects  for  which  the  excursion 
had  been  principally  undertaken. 

"  On  the  morning  of  the  21st,  I  marched  from  Enotac- 
hopco  as  direct  as  I  could  for  the  bend  of  the  Tallapoosa, 
and  about  two  o'clock,  p.  M.,  my  spies  having  discovered  two 
of  the  enemy,  endeavored  to  overtake  them,  but  failed.  In 
the  evening  I  fell  in  upon  a  large  trail,  which  led  to  a  new 
road,  much  beaten,  and  lately  traveled.  Knowing  that  I  must 
have  arrived  within  the  neighborhood  of  a  strong  force,  and  it 
being  late  in  the  day,  I  determined  to  encamp,  and  recon- 
noiter  the  country  in  the  night.  I  chose  the  best  site  the 
country  would  admit,  encamped  in  a  hollow  square,  sent  out 
my  spies  and  pickets,  doubled  my  sentinels,  and  made  the 
necessary  arrangements  before  dark  for  a  night  attack.  About 
ten  o'clock  at  night  one  of  the  pickets  fired  at  three  of  the 
enemy,  and  killed  one,  but  he  was  not  found  until  the  next 
day.  At  eleven  o'clock  the  spies  whom  I  had  sent  out,  re 
turned  with  the  information  that  there  was  a  large  encamp 
ment  of  Indians  at  the  distance  of  about  three  miles,  who, 
from  their  whooping  and  dancing,  seemed  to  be  apprised  of 
our  approach.  One  of  these  spies,  an  Indian,  in  whom  I  had 
great  confidence,  assured  me  that  they  were  carrying  off  their 
women  and  children,  and  that  the  warriors  would  either  make 
their  escape,  or  attack  me  before  day.  Being  prepared  at  all 
points,  nothing  remained  to  be  done  but  to  await  their  ap 
proach,  if  they  meditated  an  attack,  or  to  be  in  readiness,  if 
they  did  not,  to  pursue  and  attack  them  at  daylight.  While 
we  were  in  this  state  of  readiness,  the  enemy,  about  six  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  commenced  a  vigorous  attack  on  niy  left 
flank,  which  was  vigorously  met.  The  action  continued  to 
rage  on  my  left  flank,  and  on  the  left  of  my  rear,  for  about 
half  an  hour.  The  brave  General  Coffee,  with  Colonel  Sitler, 
the  adjutant  general,  and  Colonel  Carroll,  the  inspector  gen 
eral,  the  moment  the  firing  commenced,  mounted  their  horses 
and  repaired  to  the  line,  encouraging  and  animating  the  men 
to  the  performance  of  their  duty.  So  soon  as  it  became  light 


1814.]          THE     RAID      AND     ITS-    RESULTS.  489 

enough  to  pursue,  the  left  wing  having  sustained  the  heat  of 
the  action,  and  being  somewhat  weakened,  was  reinforced  by 
Captain  Fen-ill's  company  of  infantry,  and  was  ordered  and 
led  on  to  the  charge  by  General  Coffee,  who  was  well  sup 
ported  by  Colonel  Higgins  and  the  inspector  general,  and  by 
all  the  officers  and  privates  who  composed  that  line.  The 
enemy  was  completely  routed  at  every  point,  and  the  friendly 
Indians  joining  in  the  pursuit,  they  were  chased  about  two 
miles  with  considerable  slaughter. 

"  The  chase  being  over,  I  immediately  detached  General 
Coffee  with  four  hundred  men,  and  all  the  Indian  force,  to 
burn  their  encampment ;  but  it  was  said  by  some  to  be  forti 
fied.  I  ordered  him  in  that  event  not  to  attack  it  until  the 
artillery  could  be  sent  forward  to  reduce  it.  On  viewing  the 
encampment  and  its  strength,  the  General  thought  it  most 
prudent  to  return  to  my  encampment,  and  guard  the  artillery 
thither.  The  wisdom  of  that  step  was  soon  discovered — in 
half  an  hour  after  his  return  to  camp  a  considerable  force  of 
the  enemy  made  its  appearance  on  my  right  flank,  and  com 
menced  a  brisk  fire  on  a  party  of  men  who  had  been  on  picket 
guard  the  night  before,  and  were  then  in  search  of  the  Indians 
they  had  fired  upon,  some  of  whom  they  believed  had  been 
killed.  General  Coffee  immediately  requested  me  to  let  him 
take  two  hundred  men  and  turn  their  left  flank,  which  I  ac 
cordingly  ordered  ;  but,  through  some  mistake,  which  I  did 
not  then  observe,  not  more  than  fifty-four  followed  him, 
among  whom  were  the  old  volunteer  officers.  With  these, 
however,  he  immediately  commenced  an  attack  on  the  left 
flank  of  the  enemy  ;  at  which  time  I  ordered  two  hundred  of 
the  friendly  Indians  to  fall  in  upon  the  right  flank  of  the 
enemy,  and  cooperate  with  the  General.  This  order  was 
promptly  obeyed,  and  on  the  moment  of  its  execution,  what 
I  expected  was  realized.  The  enemy  had  intended  the  attack 
on  the  right  as  a  feint,  and  expecting  to  direct  all  my  atten 
tion  thither,  meant  to  attack  me  again,  and  with  their  main 
force,  on  the  left  flank,  which  they  had  hoped  to  find  weak 
ened  and  in  disorder — they  were  disappointed.  I  had  ordered 


490  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

the  left  flank  to  remain  firm  in  its  place,  and  the  moment  the 
alarm  gun  was  heard  in  that  quarter,  I  repaired  thither,  and 
ordered  Captain  Ferrill,  part  of  my  reserve,  to  support  it. 
The  whole  line  met  the  approach  of  the  enemy  with  astonish 
ing  intrepidity,  and  having  given  a  few  fires,  they  forthwith 
charged  with  great  vigor.  The  enemy  fled  with  precipitation, 
and  were  pursued  to  a  considerable  distance  by  the  left  flank 
and  the  friendly  Indians,  with  a  galling  and  destructive  fire. 
Colonel  Carroll,  who  ordered  the  charge,  led  on  the  pursuit, 
and  Colonel  Higgins  and  his  regiment  again  distinguished 
themselves. 

"  In  the  meantime  General  Coffee  was  contending  with  a 
superior  force  of  the  enemy.  The  Indians  whom  I  had  or 
dered  to  his  support,  and  who  had  set  out  for  this  purpose, 
hearing  the  firing  on  the  left,  had  returned  to  that  quarter, 
and  when  the  enemy  were  routed  there,  entered  into  the 
chase.  That  being  now  over,  I  forthwith  ordered  Jim  Fife, 
who  was  one  of  the  principal  commanders  of  the  friendly 
Creeks,  with  one  hundred  of  his  warriors,  to  execute  my  first 
order.  So  soon  as  he  reached  General  Coffee,  the  charge  was 
made,  and  the  enemy  routed  ;  they  were  pursued  about  three 
miles,  and  forty-five  of  them  slain,  who  were  found.  General 
Coffee  was  wounded  in  the  body,  and  his  aid-de-camp,  A. 
Donelson,  killed,  together  with  three  others.  Having  brought 
in  and  buried  the  dead,  and  dressed  the  wounded,  I  ordered 
my  camp  to  be  fortified,  to  be  the  better  prepared  to  repel 
any  attack  which  might  be  made  in  the  night,  determining  to 
make  a  return  march  to  Fort  Strother  the  following  day. 
Many  causes  concurred  to  make  such  a  measure  necessary,  as 
I  had  not  set  out  prepared,  or  with  a  view  to  make  a  per 
manent  establishment.  I  considered  it  worse  than  useless  to 
advance,  and  destroy  an  empty  encampment.  I  had,  indeed, 
hoped  to  have  met  the  enemy  there,  but  having  met  and 
beaten  them  a  little  sooner,  I  did  not  think  it  necessary  or 
prudent  to  proceed  any  farther — not  necessary,  because  I  had 
accomplished  all  I  could  expect  to  effect  by  marching  to  their 
encampment ;  and  because  if  it  was  proper  to  contend  with  and 


1814.]  THE     RAID     AND     ITS     RESULTS.  491 

weaken  their  forces  still  farther,  this  object  would  be  more 
certainly  attained  by  commencing  a  return,  which,  having  to 
them  the  appearance  of  a  retreat,  would  inspirit  them  to  pur 
sue  me.  Not  prudent — because  of  the  number  of  my  wounded  ; 
of  the  reinforcements  from  below,  which  the  enemy  might  be 
expected  to  receive ;  of  the  starving  condition  of  my  horses, 
they  having  had  neither  corn  nor  cane  for  two  days  and 
nights  ;  of  the  scarcity  of  supplies  for  my  men,  the  Indians 
who  joined  me  at  Tallageda  having  drawn  none,  and  being 
wholly  destitute  ;  and  because  if  the  enemy  pursued  me,  as  it 
was  likely  they  would,  the  diversion  in  favor  of  General  Floyd 
would  be  the  more  complete  and  effectual.  Influenced  by 
these  considerations,  I  commenced  my  return  march  at  half 
after  ten  on  the  23d,  and  was  fortunate  enough  to  reach  Eno- 
tachopco  before  night,  having  passed,  without  interruption,  a 
dangerous  defile  occasioned  by  a  hurricane.  I  again  fortified 
my  camp,  and  having  another  defile  to  pass  in  the  morning, 
across  a  deep  creek,  and  between  two  hills  which  I  had  viewed 
with  attention  as  I  passed  on,  and  where  I  expected  I  might 
be  attacked,  I  determined  to  pass  it  at  another  point,  and 
gave  directions  to  my  guide  and  fatigue  men  accordingly. 
My  expectation  of  an  attack  in  the  morning  was  increased  by 
the  signs  of  the  night,  and  with  it  my  caution.  Before  I 
moved  the  wounded  from  the  interior  of  my  camp  I  had  my 
front  and  rear  guards  formed,  as  well  as  my  right  and  left 
columns,  and  moved  off  my  center  in  regular  order,  leading 
down  a  handsome  ridge  to  Enotachopco  creek,  at  a  point 
where  it  was  clear  of  reed,  except  immediately  on  its  margin. 
I  had  previously  issued  a  general  order,  pointing  out  the  man 
ner  in  which  the  men  should  be  formed  in  the  event  of  an 
attack  on  the  front  or  rear,  or  on  the  flanks,  and  had  par 
ticularly  cautioned  the  officers  to  halt  and  form  accordingly, 
the  instant  the  word  should  be  given. 

"  The  front  guard  had  crossed  with  part  of  the  flank  col 
umns,  the  wounded  were  over,  and  the  artillery  in  the  act  of 
entering  the  creek,  when  an  alarm  gun  was  heard  in  the  rear. 
I  heard  it  without  surprise,  and  even  with  pleasure,  calcu- 


492  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

lating  with  the  utmost  confidence  on  the  firmness  of  my 
troops,  from  the  manner  in  which  I  had  seen  them  act  on  the 
22d.  I  had  placed  Colonel  Carroll  at  the  head  of  the  center 
column  of  the  rear  guard  ;  its  right  column  was  commanded 
by  Colonel  Perkins,  and  its  left  by  Colonel  Stump.  Having 
chosen  the  ground,  I  expected  there  to  have  entirely  cut  off 
the  enemy,  by  wheeling  the  right  and  left  columns  on  their 
pivot,  recrossing  the  creek  above  and  below,  and  falling  in 
upon  their  flanks  and  rear.  But,  to  my  astonishment  and 
mortification,  when  the  word  was  given  by  Colonel  Carroll  to 
halt  and  form,  and  a  few  guns  had  been  fired,  I  beheld  the 
right  and  left  columns  of  the  rear  guard  precipitately  give 
way.  This  shameful  retreat  was  disastrous  in  the  extreme  ; 
it  drew  along  with  it  the  greater  part  of  the  center  column, 
leaving  not  more  than  twenty-five  men,  who,  being  formed 
by  Colonel  Carroll,  maintained  their  ground  as  long  as  it  was 
possible  to  maintain  it ;  and  it  brought  consternation  and 
confusion  into  the  center  of  the  army ;  a  consternation  which 
was  not  easily  removed,  and  a  confusion  which  could  not  be 
soon  restored  to  order.  There  was  then  left  to  repulse  the 
enemy,  the  few  who  remained  of  the  rear  guard,  the  artillery 
company,  and  Captain  KusselFs  company  of  spies.  They, 
however,  realized,  and  exceeded  my  highest  expectations. 
Lieutenant  Armstrong,  who  commanded  the  artillery  com 
pany  in  the  absence  of  Captain  Deaderick,  (confined  by  sick 
ness,)  ordered  them  to  form  and  advance  to  the  top  of  the 
hill,  whilst  he  and  a  few  others  dragged  up  the  six  pounder. 
Never  was  more  bravery  displayed  than  on  this  occasion. 
Amidst  the  most  galling  fire  from  the  enemy,  more  than  ten 
times  their  number,  they  ascended  the  hill,  and  maintained 
their  position  until  their  piece  was  hauled  up,  when,  having 
leveled  it,  they  poured  upon  the  enemy  a  fire  of  grape,  re 
loaded  and  fired  again,  charged  and  repulsed  them. 

"  The  most  deliberate  bravery  was  displayed  by  Constan- 
tine  Perkins  and  Craven  Jackson,  of  the  artillery,  acting  as 
gunners.  In  the  hurry  of  the  moment,  in  separating  the  gun 
from  the  limbers,  the  rammer  and  picker  of  the  cannon  were 


1814.]  THE     RAID     AND     ITS     RESULTS.  493 

left  tied  to  the  limber.  No  sooner  was  this  discovered,  than 
Jackson,  amidst  the  galling  fire  of  the  enemy,  pulled  out  the 
ramrod  of  his  musket  and  used  it  as  a  picker  ;  primed  with  a 
cartridge  and  fired  the  cannon.  Perkins  having  pulled  off  his 
bayonet,  used  his  musket  as  a  rammer,  drove  doAvn  the  car 
tridge  ;  and  Jackson  using  his  former  plan,  again  discharged 
her.  The  brave  Lieutenant  Armstrong,  just  after  the  first 
fire  of  the  cannon,  with  Captain  Hamilton  of  East  Tennessee. 
Bradford  and  M'Gravock,  all  fell,  the  lieutenant  exclaiming 
as  he  lay,  e  My  brave  fellows ,  some  of  you  may  fall,  but  you 
must  save  the  cannon.'  About  this  time,  a  number  crossed 
the  creek  and  entered  into  the  chase.  The  brave  Captain 
Gordon,  of  the  spies,  who  rushed  from  the  front,  endeavored 
to  turn  the  flank  of  the  enemy,  in  which  he  partially  suc 
ceeded,  and  Colonel  Carroll,  Colonel  Higgins,  and  Captains 
Elliot  and  Pipkins,  pursued  the  enemy  for  more  than  two 
miles,  who  fled  in  consternation,  throwing  away  their  packs, 
and  leaving  twenty-six  of  their  warriors  dead  on  the  field. 
This  last  defeat  was  decisive,  and  we  were  no  more  disturbed 
by  their  yells.  I  should  do  injustice  to  my  feelings  if  I  omit 
ted  to  mention  that  the  venerable  Judge  Cocke,  at  the  age 
of  sixty-five,  entered  into  the  engagement,  continued  the  pur 
suit  of  the  enemy  with  youthful  ardor,  and  saved  the  life  of 
a  fellow-soldier  by  killing  his  savage  antagonist. 

"Our  loss  in  this  affair  was  —  killed  and  wounded. 
Among  the  former  was  the  brave  Captain  Hamilton,  from 
East  Tennessee,  who  had,  with  his  aged  father  and  two  others 
of  his  company,  after  the  period  of  his  engagement  had  ex 
pired,  volunteered  his  services  for  this  excursion,  and  attached 
himself  to  the  artillery  company.  No  man  ever  fought  more 
bravely,  or  fell  more  gloriously ;  and  by  his  side  fell  with 
equal  bravery  and  glory,  Bird  Evans,  of  the  same  company. 
Captain  Quarles,  who  commanded  the  center  column  of  the 
rear  guard,  preferring  death  to  the  abandonment  of  his  post, 
having  taken  a  firm  stand,  in  which  he  was  followed  by 
twenty- five  of  his  men,  received  a  wound  in  his  head,  of 

which  he  has  since  died. 
VOL.  i. — 32 


494  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

"In  these  several  engagements,  our  loss  was  twenty  killed 
and  seventy-five  wounded,  four  of  whom  have  since  died. 
The  loss  of  the  enemy  can  not  be  accurately  ascertained  ; 
one  hundred  and  eighty-nine  of  their  warriors  were  found 
dead ;  but  this  must  fall  considerably  short  of  the  number 
really  killed.  Their  wounded  "can  only  be  guessed  at. 

"  Had  it  not  been  for  the  unfortunate  retreat  of  the  rear 
guard  in  the  affair  of  the  24th  instant,  I  think  I  could  safely 
have  said  that  no  army  of  militia  ever  acted  with  more  cool 
and  deliberate  bravery ;  undisciplined  and  inexperienced  as 
they  were,  their  conduct  in  the  several  engagements  of  the 
22d  could  not  have  been  surpassed  by  regulars.  No  man  ever 
met  the  approach  of  an  enemy  with  more  intrepidity,  or  re 
pulsed  them  with  more  energy.  On  the  24th,  after  the 
retreat  of  the  rear  guard,  they  seemed  to  have  lost  all  their 
collectednesSj  and  were  more  difficult  to  be  restored  to  order 
than  any  troops  I  have  ever  seen.  But  this  was  no  doubt 
owing  in  a  great  measure,  or  altogether,  to  that  very  retreat, 
and  ought  rather  to  be  ascribed  to  the  want  of  conduct  in 
many  of  their  officers,  than  any  cowardice  in  the  men,  who 
on  every  occasion  have  manifested  a  willingness  to  perform 
their  duty  so  far  as  they  knew  it. 

"  All  the  effects  which  were  designed  to  be  produced  by 
this  excursion,  it  is  believed  have  been  produced.  If  an  at 
tack  was  meditated  against  Fort  Armstrong,  that  has  been 
prevented.  If  General  Floyd  is  operating  on  the  east  side  of 
the  Tallapoosa,  as  I  suppose  him  to  be,  a  most  fortunate  di 
version  has  been  made  in  his  favor.  The  number  of  the  enemy 
has  been  diminished,  and  the  confidence  they  may  have  de 
rived  from  the  delays  I  have  been  made  to  experience  has 
been  destroyed.  Discontent  has  been  kept  out  of  my  army, 
while  the  troops  who  would  have  been  exposed  to  it,  have 
been  beneficially  employed.  The  enemy's  country  has  been 
explored,  and  a  road  cut  to  the  point  where  their  force  will 
probably  be  concentrated  when  they  shall  be  driven  from  the 
country  below.  But  in  a  report  of  this  kind,  and  to  you  who 
will  immediately  perceive  them,  it  is  not  necessary  to  state  the 


1814.]  THE     RAID     AND     ITS    RESULTS.  495 

happy  consequences  which  may  be  expected  to  result  from 
this  excursion.  Unless  I  am  greatly  mistaken,  it  will  be 
found  to  have  hastened  the  termination  of  the  Creek  war, 
more  effectually  than  any  measure  I  could  have  taken  with 
the  troops  under  my  command." 

The  conduct  of  General  Coffee  in  the  second  engagement 
was  eminently  praiseworthy.  Wounded  in  the  first  battle, 
he  was  carried  to  the  scene  of  the  second  on  a  litter.  When 
the  retreat  of  the  rear  guard  threw  the  army  into  confusion 
and  peril,  he  mounted  his  horse  and  rode  wherever  the  danger 
was  greatest,  inspiring  the  men  by  his  presence,  his  words, 
and  his  example,  and  contributing  most  powerfully  to  restore 
the  fortunes  of  the  day.  Jackson  himself  was  a  lion  on  this 
occasion.  Major  Eaton's  glowing  account  of  his  demeanor, 
besides  being  supported  by  other  testimony,  is  in  itself  proba 
ble.  "But  for  him,"  says  Eaton,  "every  thing  must  have 
gone  to  ruin.  On  him  all  hopes  were  rested.  In  that  mo 
ment  of  confusion  he  was  the  rallying  point  even  for  the 
spirits  of  the  brave.  Firm  and  energetic,  and  at  the  same 
time  perfectly  self-possessed,  his  example  and  his  authority 
alike  contributed  to  arrest  the  flying  and  give  confidence  to 
those  who  maintained  their  ground.  Cowards  forgot  their 
panic,  and  fronted  danger,  when  they  heard  his  voice  and  be 
held  his  manner  ;  and  the  brave  vftmld  have  formed  round  his 
body  a  rampart  with  their  own.  In  the  midst  of  showers  of 
balls,  of  which  he  seemed  unmindful,  he  was  seen  performing 
the  duties  of  the  subordinate  officers,  rallying  the  alarmed, 
halting  them  in  their  flight,  forming  his  columns,  and  inspirit 
ing  them  by  his  example." 

Before  me  lies  General  Coffee's  private  narrative  of  these 
actions,  written  a  day  or  two  after  the  return  of  the  army  to 
Fort  Strother.  His  letter,  like  those  previously  quoted,  was 
addressed  to  his  father-in-law,  Captain  Donelson,  the  father 
of  that  brave  young  aid-de-camp  of  General  Coffee  who  was 
shot  dead  at  the  time  when  Coffee  received  his  own  wound. 
The  sad  news  of  the  fall  of  this  young  soldier  General  Coffee 
had  now  to  communicate  to  his  father,  and  he  performed  the 


496  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

duty  with  the  tact  that  good  feeling  suggests.  The  reader 
will  peruse  with  interest  the  whole  of  this  letter,  so  char 
acteristic  of  its  author,  so  confirmatory  of  General  Jackon's 
dispatch.  Sundry  gentlemen  in  Tennessee,  who  strenuously 
object  to  General  Jackson's  account  of  the  departure  of  the 
troops  in  December,  will  observe  that  General  Coffee  was  of 
the  opinion  that  death  itself  would  be  the  proper  punishment 
of  those  who  advised  that  tumultuous  breaking  away.  But 
to  the  letter  itself,  which  was  dated  January  28th,  1814  : — 

"  We  have  to  record,"  began  Coffee  with  admirable  and  awkward  deli 
cacy.  "  the  proceedings  of  another  excursion  into  the  interior  of  the  enemy's 
country ;  and,  although  we  have  met  with  success,  it  is  marked  with  cir 
cumstances  of  regret  and  misfortune  that  are  serious  to  the  friends  of 
those  brave  men  whose  lives  have  been  lost  in  achieving  the  battles  that 
have  been  obtained.  Painful  as  it  is,  I  must  inform  you  that  Sandy  Donel- 
son  was  among  the  slain.  He  fell  by  a  ball  through  his  head,  near  me, 
a  few  minutes  after  I  had  received  a  wound  by  a  ball  through  my  right 
side,  but  not  dangerous. 

"  In  a  state  of  war  the  lives  of  men  must  be  lost ;  and  the  only  circum 
stance  that  leaves  us  any  satisfaction  for  our  departed  friends,  is  when  they 
have  acted  their  part  well,  and  fallen  bravely  defending  the  government 
we  are  bound  to  protect ;  and  in  that  your  son  has  been  exceeded  by  none. 
He  fell  in  the  fourth  battle  that  he  fought  by  my  side,  and  I  can  with  cer 
tainty  say  that  a  braver  man  never  lived.  He  is  no  more,  but  his  death 
has  been  glorious.  He  has  bequeathed  his  friends  a  valuable  inheritance 
in  the  character  he  has  acquired  to  his  memory ;  and  while  we  his  friends 
lament  his  loss  in  the  bloom  of  life,  we  may  rejoice  at  the  honorable  sta 
tion  in  which  his  memory  is  placed,  and  which  is  beyond  the  reach  of 
strife  or  envy. 

"  We  left  this  place  (Fort  Strother)  on  the  16th  instant,  and  marched 
by  Taliadega  and  from  thence  south-east,  about  seventy  miles  from  this 
place,  which  brought  us  into  the  neighborhood  of  the  villages  of  the  Oak- 
fuskas  and  others  united,  whom  we  intended  an  attack  on.  We  were  dis 
covered  by  the  spies  of  the  enemy ;  and  when  within  a  few  miles  of  them, 
as  we  expected,  we  were  attacked  on  the  morning  of  the  22d  about  the 
dawn  of  day  very  furiously.  Our  men  were  on  their  posts,  and  as  soon  as 
it  was  light  enough  to  see,  we  drove  them.  They  were  dispersed.  Again, 
the  same  day,  they  brought  on  the  attack  about  one  o'clock,  when  Sandy 
fell  and  myself  was  wounded.  This  was  a  sharp  conflict  on  the  part  of 
the  army ;  but  finally  the  enemy  were  completely  driven.  Although  we 


1814.]  THE     RAID     AND     ITS     RESULTS.  497 

had  killed  ten  of  the  enemy  to  every  man  we  had  lost,  yet  we  had  wounded 
men  to  provide  for,  and  determined  to  return.  On  the  23d  we  moved  back 
about  ten  miles ;  and  on  the  morning  of  the  24th,  after  marching,  and  while 
crossing  a  large  creek,  the  rear  of  our  army  was  again  attacked ;  when  the 
rear  guard,  in  a  very  cowardly  manner,  retreated  before  the  enemy,  who 
fell  upon  the  Nashville  artillery  company,  the  only  part  of  the  army  on  that 
side  of  the  creek  after  the  guards  left  them.  They  met  the  savages  with 
firmness,  and  after  a  heavy  fire  for  several  minutes,  contending  with  vastly 
superior  numbers,  they  put  the  enemy  to  flight,  but  with  the  loss  of  six  or 
eight  fine  young  men.  Our  horsemen  recrossed  the  creek,  and  pursued, 
killing  many  in  the  pursuit,  until  they  took  refuge  in  the  neighboring  hills. 
Thus  our  fighting  ended,  and  we  came  on  to  this  place,  and  arrived  here  on 
the  27th.  We  can  not  pretend  to  say  what  number  of  Indians  fought  us ; 
but  they  are  supposed  to  be  from  eight  to  ten  hundred.  Our  forces  were 
one  thousand  white  men  and  two  hundred  friendly  Indians.  The  loss  of 
the  enemy,  from  best  accounts,  has  been  upwards  of  two  hundred  killed. 
We  lost  eighteen  killed  and  seventy  wounded,  four  of  whom  are  since  dead ; 
not  many  others  dangerous. 

"  Our  great  loss  has  been  occasioned  by  our  troops  being  raw  and  un 
disciplined,  commanded  by  officers  of  the  same  description.  Had  I  had  my 
old  regiment  of  cavalry,  I  could  have  driven  the  enemy  wherever  I  met 
them  without  loss.  But  speculation  had  taken  them  out  of  the  field,  and 
thus  we  have  suffered  for  them.  Their  advisers  ought  to  suffer  death  for 
their  unwarrantable  conduct,  and  I  hope  our  injured  citizens  will  treat  them 
with  the  contempt  they  so  justly  merit. 

"  Jockey,  with  about  twenty  men,  followed  after  us  when  we  marched, 
and  fortunately  reached  our  camp  in  the  night  before  the  battle  of  the  morn 
ing  of  the  22d.  Thus  he  just  saved  himself  and  men.  He  has  escaped  un 
hurt,  and  is  now  with  me.  Colonel  Perkins  and  Colonel  John  Stump  are 
now  on  trial  before  a  court  martial  for  cowardice  in  running  at  the  head  of 
the  guard  at  the  last  battle.  It  is  supposed  their  sentence  will  be  a  severe 
one. 

"  I  expect  in  two  or  three  days  to  be  able  to  ride  slowly,  when  I  shall 
start  home,  until  I  recover  my  wounds,  and  until  my  further  service  may 
fee  wanting.  You  will  see  General  Jackson's  official  report,  no  doubt,  pub 
lished,  which  will  give  you  the  particulars  of  our  affairs  more  correctly. 
When  I  reach  home  I  would  be  exceedingly  glad  to  see  you  and  Mrs. 
Donelsou  at  my  house,  as  I  don't  expect  I  will  be  able  for  some  time 
to  ride  as  far  as  your  house  after  I  quit  traveling.  I  received  your 
letter  by  Jockey,  and  was  glad  to  hear  of  the  health  of  yourself  and 
family.  I  also  received  a  letter  from  Polly,  who  informs  me  of  her  own 
and  little  Mary's  health;  which,  in  this  lonesome  place  was  very  satis 
factory.  If  our  war  was  honorably  terminated,  I  would  be  content ;  but 


498  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

until  that  is  the  case,  I  never  can  be  happy.     With  great  regard  and 
esteem,  I  am,  etc."* 

Little  else  need  be,  and  nothing  material  can  be;  added. 
General  Jackson's  dispatch  was  published  in  some  of  the 
newspapers  at  the  time,  and  made  the  name  of  Jackson  con 
siderably,  though  not  generally  known  in  other  States.  I  do 
not  find  it  in  New  York  or  New  England  papers,  though  they 
mention  the  battles  of  Emuckfaw  and  Enotochopco  in  short 
paragraphs.  It  was  the  amiable  habit  of  the  opposition  papers 
during  the  war  of  1812  to  make  as  little  as  possible  of  Amer 
ican  victories,  and  as  much  as  possible  of  American  disasters. 
Thus,  we  find  the  account  of  one  of  Jackson's  battles  occupying 
three  or  four  columns  in  the  National  Intelligencer,  the  organ 
of  the  administration,  and  the  same  event  disposed  of  in  the 
Federal  Evening  Post  in  a  paragraph  of  ten  lines.  Hence, 
when  at  length  Jackson  achieved  such  things  as  could  not  be 
suppressed  or  depreciated,  it  was  found  that  he  was  almost  an 
unknown  man  in  the  north-eastern  States.  Who  is  this  Gen 
eral  Jackson  ?  and  Where  did  he  come  from  ?  were  questions 
commonly  asked. 

General  Pinckney  bestowed  the  warmest  applause  upon 
"  the  intelligent  bravery  and  good  conduct"  of  General  Jack 
son  and  his  volunteers  ;  testifying  also  to  the  importance  of 
the  late  movement  to  the  operations  of  the  Georgia  troops 
under  General  Floyd.  In  a  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  War, 
dated  February  6th,  General  Pinckney  ventured  upon  a  sug 
gestion  which  had  results :  "I  take  the  liberty,"  said  he,  "  of 
drawing  your  attention  to  the  present  and  former  communi 
cations  of  General  Jackson.  Without  the  personal  firmness, 
popularity,  and  exertions  of  that  officer,  the  Indian  war,  on 
the  part  of  Tennessee,  would  have  been  abandoned,  at  least 
for  a  time,  as  will  appear  by  reference  to  the  letters  of  Gov 
ernor  Blount  heretofore  transmitted.  If  government  think 
it  advisable  to  elevate  to  the  rank  of  general  other  persons 
than  those  now  in  the  army,  I  have  heard  of  none  whose  mil 
itary  operations  so  well  entitle  him  to  that  distinction." 

*  MSS.  of  Tennessee  Historical  Society. 


1814.]  BRIGHTER     PROSPECTS.  499 

CHAPTER    XLVI. 

BRIGHTER     PROSPECTS. 

THE  excursion  over,  and  the  new  levies  from  Tennessee 
approaching,  Jackson  dismissed  his  victorious  troops,  whose 
term  of  service  was  about  to  expire.  He  bade  them  farewell 
in  an  address  abounding  in  kind  and  flattering  expressions  ; 
and  they  left  him  feeling  all  that  soldiers  usually  feel  toward 
the  general  who  has  led  them  to  victory. 

The  return  of  these  troops,  animated  by  such  sentiments, 
gave  a  new  impetus  to  the  cause  in  Tennessee,  and  fired  the 
troops  who  were  on  their  way  to  the  seat  of  war  with  new 
zeal.  From  all  quarters  came  volunteers,  hurrying  toward 
the  standard  of  the  successful  General,  whose  prospects  now 
brightened  with  every  day's  dispatches.  On  the  3d  of  Feb 
ruary  came  news  that  two  thousand  East  Tennesseans  were 
far  on  their  way  to  join  him.  A  day  or  two  after  a  dispatch 
informed  the  General  that  nearly  as  many  West  Tennessee 
troops  had  reached  Huntsville  and  waited  his  orders.  On 
the  6th,  marched  into  Fort  Strother  the  thirty-ninth  regi 
ment  of  United  States  infantry,  six  hundred  strong,  under 
Colonel  Williams,  a  most  important  acquisition.  Into  this 
regiment  one  SAM  HOUSTON  had  recently  enlisted  as  a  private 
soldier,  and  made  his  way  to  the  rank  of  ensign  ;  the  same 
Sam  Houston  who  was  afterward  President  of  Texas  and 
Senator  of  the  United  States. 

It  was  to  the  patriotic  zeal  of  Judge  Hugh  L.  White  of 
East  Tennessee  that  General  Jackson  owed  this  priceless  re 
inforcement  of  regulars.  Hearing  rumors  of  General  Jack 
son's  danger,  Judge  White  left  the  bench  and  hurried  to  the 
wilderness  to  learn,  by  personal  inspection,  the  true  state  of 
affairs.  He  found  Jackson  almost  alone  in  the  woods,  con 
tending  with  every  difficulty.  After  rendering  essential  serv 
ice  by  bearing  dispatches  and  messages  from  General  Cocke 
to  General  Jackson  and  from  General  Jackson  to  General 


500  LIFE      OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

Cocke,  he  returned  to  East  Tennessee  to  aid  in  the  raising  of 
a  new  army.  There  he  found  his  brother-in-law,  Colonel 
John  Williams,  at  the  head  of  the  thirty-ninth  regiment, 
preparing  to  descend  to  New  Orleans,  according  to  orders 're 
ceived  from  the  Secretary  of  War.  "  He  told  Colonel  Wil 
liams  that  he  had  been  commissioned  by  General  Jackson  to 
represent  to  him  '  his  condition  as  very  deplorable  ;  that  his 
men  had  all  abandoned  him,  except  his  life-guard,  and  unless 
he  came  to  his  aid  the  country  would  be  overrun  by  savages, 
the  inhabitants  become  victims  of  every  species  of  cruelty, 
and  the  reputation  of  their  State  for  ever  blasted/  "  Judge 
White  remained  with  Colonel  Williams  nearly  all  night,  using 
every  means  in  his  power  to  impress  upon  his  mind  the  ne 
cessity  of  relieving  Jackson's  force.  His  importunities  finally 
prevailed.  Colonel  Williams  acquiesced  in  his  wishes,  wrote 
to  the  War  Department,  stating  his  intentions  to  proceed  to 
General  Jackson's  head-quarters  instead  of  to  the  South,  ac 
cording  to  his  previous  instructions  ;  and  upon  learning  that 
his  plans  were  approved  by  the  government,  at  once  marched 
for  the  former  destination,  and  arrived  with  his  troops  Feb 
ruary  6th,  1814."* 

In  addition  to  this  most  important  reinforcement,  there 
came  in,  soon  after,  a  part  of  General  Coffee's  old  brigade  of 
mounted  men,  and  a  troop  of  dragoons  from  East  Tennessee. 
The  Choctaw  Indians  now  openly  joined  the  peace  party,  and 
asked  orders  from  General  Jackson.  There  was  no  lack  of 
men  of  any  description.  Long  before  February  closed,  Jack 
son  was  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  five  thousand  men,  all 
within  a  few  days'  march  of  Fort  Strother,  waiting  only  till 
the  General  could  accumulate  twenty  days'  rations  to  march 
in,  and  strike,  as  they  hoped,  a  finishing  blow  at  the  enemy. 

It  was  in  connection  with  the  assembling  of  this  force 
that  the  arrest  of  General  Cocke  occurred.  It  were  an 
ungracious  task  to  revive  the  bitter  feuds  that  preceded  and 
grew  out  of  this  unhappy  affair.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that 

*  Memoirs  of  Hugh  L.  White,  p.  26. 


1814.]  BRIGHTER      PROSPECTS.  501 

General  Cocke  was  grossly  misrepresented  to  General  Jack 
son.  He  had  raised  his  new  army  of  East  'Tennesseeans,  and 
was  doing  his  best  to  lead  them  to  Jackson's  head-quarters, 
contending  with  scarcity  and  insubordination.  Delays  oc 
curred,  which,  Jackson  was  informed,  were  caused  by  General 
Cocke's  jealousy  or  ambition.  Back  to  Cocke's  division  came 
a  thundering  order  from  Jackson  to  one  of  Cocke's  brigadiers, 
to  arrest,  and  send  under  guard  to  Fort  Strother,  every  officer, 
of  whatever  rank,  who  should  be  found  exciting  the  men  to 
mutiny.  General  Cocke  had  no  resource,  after  such  an  in 
dignity,  but  to  retire  from  the  service,  and  submit  his  case 
to  court  martial,  which  acquitted  him.  It  was  a  fault  of 
Jackson's  character,  as  it  is  of  most  men  of  his  temperament, 
to  imbibe  prejudices  readily,  and  hold  them  tenaciously. 
But  the  really  guilty  persons  in  this  affair  were  those  who, 
from  misunderstanding  General  Cocke's  designs,  or  from 
enmity  to  him,  conveyed  to  General  Jackson  reports  of  his 
conduct,  which  were  either  totally  false  or  monstrous  ex 
aggerations.  His  division  arrived  at  Fort  Strother  in  com 
mand  of  the  officer  who  was  chiefly  instrumental  in  his 
removal  from  the  field. 

Now  were  put  forth,  on  every  hand,  the  most  prodigious 
exertions  to  collect  the  requisite  supplies.  Major  William 
B.  Lewis  performed  labors  in  the  cause  which  Jackson  re 
membered  with  gratitude  and  admiration  as  long  as  he  lived. 
The  difficulty  of  forwarding  supplies  may  be  inferred^Trom 
the  fact,  that  over  the  miry  forest  roads  at  that  wet  season, 
four  horses  could  with  difficulty  draw  four  barrels  of  flour. 
Jackson  set  five  hundred  men  at  work  improving  the  road 
between  his  depot  at  Fort  Deposit  and  his  camp  at  Fort 
Strother.  He  prohibited  the  transportation  of  whisky  and 
every  other  article  not  strictly  indispensable,  and  sent  strong 
guards  with  each  wagon  train  to  assist  the  teamsters.  Yet, 
with  all  their  efforts,  it  required  seven  days  for  a  wagon  train 
to  perform  one  journey  between  the  two  posts  ;  and  not  one 
wagon  succeeded  in  bringing  more  than  eight  barrels  of  flour 
or  sixteen  hundred  pounds  of  pork.  The  troops  not  thus 


502  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814 

employed  were  engaged,  meanwhile,  in  constructing  boats  in 
which  to  convey 'the  supplies  for  the  projected  expedition 
down  the  Coosa.  All  the  wounded,  the  sick,  and  the  invalids, 
were  sent  to  the  settlements. 

A  hasty  confidential  letter,  written  by  the  General  to  his 
quarter-master,  Major  William  B.  Lewis,  may  find  place  here. 
It  is  of  no  great  importance,  but  gives  us  a  peep  into  the 
General's  heart  and  camp.  I  will  copy  it  as  exactly  as  pos 
sible,  not  correcting  any  thing  : — 

GENERAL    JACKSON    TO    MAJOR    WILLIAM    B.    LEWIS, 

HEAD-QUARTERS,  FORT  STROTHER,  February  21st,  1814 
DEAR  SIR  : 

"I  drew  upon  you  a  few  days  since,  for  fifteen  hundred  dollars, 
and  sent  the  letter  and  draft  on  to  Mr.  John  Hutchings,  requesting  him  to 
go  on  direct  and  present  and  bring  it  to  me.  I  sent  also  a  receipt  signed 
for  the  same.  I  hope  you  have  sent  it.  I  am  exerting  every  nerve  to 
get  up  the  supplies,  to  make  a  speedy  movement.  The  incessant  rains 
and  high  water  has  prevented  the  passage  of  my  supplies,  and  the  want 
of  axes  has  delayed  the  bridging  of  the  creeks,  and  the  want  of  hemp  has 
delayed  the  completion  of  my  boats.  I  just  learn  that  the  hemp  is  on  the 
way.  I  expected  it  up  a  week  ago.  I  made  a  requisition  for  20001bs 
good  powder,  and  40001bs  lead,  is  it  on  the  way,  thirty  days'  provisions 
with  the  requisition  of  powder  and  lead,  and  I  will  endeavor  with  the  con 
tinuation  of  the  smiles  of  heaven  to  move  with  vigor  and  terminate  the 
war  in  that  time.  I  am  pleased  with  the  prospects,  and  it  only  requires  ex 
ertion  in  the  Quarter  master's  department,  to  enable  me  in  a  short  time  to 
meet  the  wishes  of  my  government,  by  crushing  the  Creek  war;  which  would 
and  ought  to  have  been  terminated  long  since  ;  had  it  not  have  been  from 
the  disgraceful  retreat  and  desertion  of  the  volunteers,  and  Gen'l  Roberts' 
brigade.  4  captains  have  been  tried  who  mutinied  and  deserted,  they  are 
found  guilty,  and  Gen'l  Roberts  under  arrest,  his  trial  comes  on  at  camp 
Johnson  the  23rd  Inst.  The  publication  of  the  testimony  will  open  the 
eyes  of  the  western  world.  In  my  last  to  you,  I  named  that  Mrs.  Jackson 
would  send  you  the  copy  of  a  letter  from  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  one 
from  Gen'l  Pinckney.  If  there  is  no  impropriety  in  giving  these  to  the 
public,  it  may  be  well  to  do  it,  as  I  understand  Col.  Roncher  has  made  his 
first  debut  before  the  public. 

Upon  reflection  I  think  it  is  only  a  tribute  due  to  the  detachment  to 
have  the  applause  of  the  Commander  in  Chief  made  public.     And  Gen'l 


1814.]  BRIGHTER     PROSPECTS.  503 

Pinckney's  letter  I  think  on  this  ground  ought  to  be  made  public.  It 
might  be  well  to  preface  it  with  some  modest  remarks  as  coming  from  my 
self,  but  this  your  calm  reflection  will  best  judge  of.  I  enclose  you  a 
Georgia  paper,  the  object  of  this  is  that  you  may  have  the  extract  of  G-en'l 
Pinckney's  letter  to  the  Gov'r  of  Georgia  and  old  Judge  Cocks'  letter  pub 
lished.  Send  me  some  good  musket  flints  and  have  by  as  many  muskets 
as  will  fully  Col.  Williams  regt.  Better  send  on,  say  150  stand  and  accou 
trements.  I  am  truly  happy  in  having  the  Col.  (Colonel  Williams)  with 
me.  His  regt.  will  give  strength  to  my  arm  and  quell  mutiny.  But  the 
information  I  have  of  the  new  troops,  augurs  well  for  a  restoration  of  the 
fallen  character  of  the  reputation  of  the  state,  and  a  speedy  end  to  the  war. 
In  haste  adieu,  respectfully, 

ANDREW  JACKSON, 

Major  WM.  B.  LEWIS,         )  Major  Gen'l, 

Assist,  Dep.  Quartermaster.    J 

Six  weeks  of  intense  labor,  on  the  part  of  the  General  and 
his  army,  were  required  to  complete  the  preparations  for  the 
decisive  movement.  The  middle  of  March  had  arrived.  The 
various  divisions  of  the  army  were  assembled  at  Fort  Strother, 
and  the  requisite  quantity  of  provisions  had  been  accumulated. 
A  system  of  expresses  had  been  established  for  the  convey 
ance  of  information  to  General  Pinckney  and  Governor  Blount. 
With  much  difficulty,  one  man  had  been  found  competent  to 
beat  the  ordinary  calls  on  the  drum,  and  this  one  drum  was 
the  sole  music  of  the  army.  Deducting  the  strong  guards  to 
be  left  at  the  posts  already  established,  the  force  about  to 
march  against  the  enemy  amounted  to  about  three  thousand 
men. 

Before  they  began  their  march,  they  were  called  upon  to 
witness  a  spectacle  which  American  soldiers  have  very  seldom 
been  obliged  to  look  upon  ;  and  we  are  compelled  to  pause 
here,  upon  the  eve  of  great  events,  to  narrate  the  circum 
stances  that  led  to  that  remarkable  scene. 


504  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

CHAPTER    XLVII. 

EXECUTION     OF     JOHN     WOODS. 

AMID  the  corpse-strewn  battle  fields  of  a  war  like  this,  in 
which  fell  not  far  from  five  thousand  men,  the  sanctity  of 
human  life  is  attested  by  the  profound  and  lasting  emotion 
caused  by  the  deliberate  putting  to  death  of  a  single  individual. 
Gone  from  memory  for  ever  are  the  names  of  most  of  the 
legitimate  victims  of  the  Creek  war,  those  who  sunk  under 
the  tomahawk  of  the  savage,  or  fell  in  battle  before  the  rifle 
of  the  pioneer  ;  but  the  name  of  John  Woods,  an  obscure, 
unlettered  youth  of  eighteen,  will  last  as  long  as  the  story  of 
the  war  itself  survives. 

It  has  not  been  easy  to  ascertain  the  exact  truth  respect 
ing  a  transaction  always  suppressed  or  slurred  over  by  Jack 
son's  eulogists,  and  always  distorted  and  misrepresented  by 
his  enemies.  This  affair,  0  reader,  has  been  made  to  do 
severe  duty  in  presidential  campaigns.  Like  an  old  soldier 
returning  after  long  service,  it  comes  to  us  so  scarred,  maimed, 
tattered  and  patched,  that  it  is  difficult  in  the  extreme  to 
tell  what  manner  of  story  it  was  before  it  went  to  the  wars. 
The  same  remark  will  apply  to  every  case  in  the  long  list  of 
Jackson's  military  executions.  The  truth  has  to  be  searched 
for  laboriously  among  a  mass  of  statements*  and  counter- 
statements,  affidavits  and  rejoinders,  of  which  few  are  worthy 
of  implicit  belief ;  of  which  none  contain  the  whole  truth ; 
of  which  many  are  flat  perjury. 

The  following,  as  far  as  the  unassisted  human  intellect 
can  discover  it,  is  the  simple  truth  respecting  the  life  and 

*  In  the  year  1828,  these  executions  were  chiefly  discussed.  See  political 
papers  of  June,  July,  August  and  September  of  that  year.  Also  the  proceedings 
of  court  martials,  of  which  all,  excepting  those  of  the  court  which  tried  Woods, 
can  still  be  read  in  pamphlets,  Congressional  documents  and  other  publications. 


1814]  EXECUTION     OF     JOHN     WOODS.  505 

death  of  John  Woods,  private  in  the  twenty-eighth  regiment 
of  West  Tennessee  light  infantry. 

At  Fayetteville,  on  the  17th  of  December,  1813,  was  mus 
tered  into  service  the  company,  fifty-seven  strong,  which  John 
Woods  afterwards  joined.  Before  they  marched,  hearing  that 
fierce  contentions  had  arisen  between  General  Jackson  and 
the  army  respecting  the  term  of  service,  it  seemed  good  to  the 
captain  of  this  company  to  adopt  a  measure  which  he  thought 
would  obviate  the  very  possibility  of  any  misunderstanding 
on  that  important  point.  Six  months  they  would  not  and 
could  not  engage  for.  Six  months'  service,  to  farmers  going  to 
war  at  the  end  of  December,  means  nothing  less  than  the  loss 
of  a  whole  year's  produce  ;  whereas,  a  tour  of  three  months, 
which  would  expire  before  the  spring  work  need  begin,  is 
only  a  winter's  frolic,  or  a  way  of  profitably  employing  the 
least  valuable  portion  of  the  agricultural  year.  General  Rob 
erts,  at  whose  call  this  company  had  assembled,  soon  found 
that  he  must  either  receive  men  for  three  months,  or  fail  to 
afford  his  commander  that  instantaneous  succor  which  he 
needed.  The  point  was  conceded,  therefore.  The  captain, 
Harris  by  name,  procured  from  his  colonel  a  paper  containing 
the  following  words  : 

"  We,  the  undersigned,  volunteers  of  the  light  infantry  of 
the  twenty-eighth  regiment,  do  agree  to  serve  a  tour  of  duty 
of  three  months  against  the  Creek  Indians,  if  not  sooner  dis 
charged." 

To  this  was  appended  the  name  of  every  member  of  the 
company,  written  by  his  own  hand.  The  paper  was  then 
taken  to  General  Roberts,  who  wrote  upon  it  as  follows  : 

"Received  Captain  Harris'  company,  agreeably  to  the 
above  conditions.  Isaac  Roberts,  B.  G." 

General  Roberts  assured  the  company,  verbally,  that  Gen 
eral  Jackson  would  receive  them  for  the  term  of  three  months, 
and  give  them  an  honorable  discharge  at  the  end  of  that 
period.  With  alacrity  and  cheerfulness  they  marched  toward 
the  scene  of  war,  and  soon  reached  the  vicinity  of  Fort 
Strother.  To  make  assurance  doubly  sure,  General  Roberts 


506  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

halted  his  men  a  few  miles  from  the  post,  and  rode  forward 
to  obtain  from  General  Jackson  a  positive  promise  to  receive 
them  for  the  shorter  term.  Jackson,  who  traced  his  worst 
embarrassments  to  the  system  of  short  terms  of  service,  and 
who  had  been  in  a  state  of  exasperation  for  more  than  a 
month,  received  General  Eoberts'  proposal,  probably,  not  in 
the  most  gracious  manner.  Nor  did  he  approve  of  his  halting 
his  men  and  coming  forward,  as  he  said,  to  make  conditions 
with  his  General.  It  is  likely  that  a  boisterous  scene  en 
sued.  It  is  likely  that  some  delay  occurred  before  Jackson 
gave  his  consent  to  receive  the  troops  on  the  terms  pro 
posed.  It  is  likely  that  General  Eoberts,  who  had  done 
his  best — who  had,  in  the  space  of  a  few  days,  raised  and 
led  to  Fort  Strother  a  body  of  nearly  two  hundred  men,  not 
ten  of  whom  would  have  stirred  from  their  firesides  on  the 
conditions  that  Jackson  had  presented — was  wounded  and 
disgusted  at  his  reception.  These  things  are  likely,  I  say  ; 
for,  in  some  way,  unknown  (because  so  variously  stated) 
news  was  conveyed  to  the  halting  troops  that  General  Jack 
son  would  not  hear  of  their  serving  for  less  than  six  months  ! 
Instantly,  nearly  the  whole  body  set  out  for  home,  and  made 
such  excellent  speed  that  they  were  twenty  miles  on  their 
way  before  General  Koberts  overtook  them. 

What  occurred  between  the  General  and  his  small  brigade 
it  is  not  possible  to  discover  with  certainty,  so  conflicting  are 
the  narratives.  We  can  only  learn  that  the  troops  resumed 
their  homeward  march,  and  that  General  Roberts  returned 
to  Fort  Strother  to  excuse  himself  and  them.  Tremendous 
was  the  wrath  of  Jackson  when  he  heard  the  tale.  De 
nouncing  the  men  as  deserters,  he  ordered  General  Roberts  to 
go  in  pursuit,  to  arrest  them,  and  bring  them  back  prisoners 
to  head-quarters.  In  executing  this  order  he  was  to  employ 
any  troops  he  could  find  ;  and  in  case  force  enough  could  not 
be  procured  for  conducting  the  men  in  safe  custody  to  Fort 
Strother,  he  was  to  lodge  them  in  the  county  jails,  there  to 
await  their  trial.  But  the  irate  General,  prudent  even  in  his 
fury,  authorized  Roberts  to  proclaim  that  all  the  deserters 


1814.]  EXECUTION     OF     JOHN     WOODS.  507 

who  should  promptly  return  to  their  duty  should  be  pardoned, 
and  received  into  the  service  on  their  own  terms. 

Again  the  company  rendezvoused  at  Fayetteville,  when 
John  Woods  joined  them  for  the  first  time.  He  was  not 
quite  eighteen  years  of  age,  and,  therefore,  not  yet  bound  to 
render  military  duty.  But  an  elder  brother  had  joined  the 
company,  and  John,  therefore,  agreed  to  serve  as  the  substi 
tute  of  a  man  who  wished  to  retire.  He  was  accepted  and 
enrolled,  and  set  out  with  the  rest  of  the  company  to  join 
Jackson's  army.  All  this  is  explicitly  asserted  by  the  cap 
tain  of  the  company  and  four  of  the  privates,  who  produce 
in  proof : — First,  the  roll  of  the  company  as  first  organized, 
which  does  not  contain  the  name  of  the  younger  Woods ; 
and,  secondly,  the  roll  of  the  company  drawn  up  upon  its 
second  assembling,  which  does  contain  it. 

In  a  few  days  the  company  reached  Fort  Strother  and  en 
tered  upon  its  duty.  Nothing  extraordinary  occurred  within 
its  ranks  until  the  morning  of  the  day  when  the  offense  was 
committed  for  which  young  Woods  was  shot. 

It  was  a  cold,  rainy  morning  in  February.  John  Woods 
was  on  guard.  He  was  cold,  for  he  had  left  his  blanket  in  his 
tent.  He  was  hungry,  for  it  was  long  past  breakfast  time, 
and  he  had  eaten  nothing  that  morning.  Obtaining  permis 
sion  from  the  officer  of  the  guard  to  leave  his  post  for  a  few 
minutes,  he  went  to  his  tent  for  the  purpose  of  getting  his 
blanket ;  and  finding  there  the  breakfast  which  his  comrades 
had  left  for  him,  he  sat  down  and  began  to  eat  it.  The  officer 
of  the  day  came  by  while  he  was  thus  engaged,  who  seeing 
the  ground  about  the  tent  strewn  with  bones  and  other 
refuse,  reproved  the  occupants  sharply,  and  ordered  such  of 
them  as  were  present,  including  Woods,  to  remove  the  offen 
sive  matter.  Woods  continued  to  eat,  and  the  officer  again 
ordered  him  to  pick  up  the  bones,  using  language  calculated 
to  irritate  a  young  man  only  a  month  in  service.  Woods  re 
plied,  and,  I  infer,  not  in  a  respectful  tone,  that  he  was  on 
guard,  and  had  obtained  permission  to  leave  his  post,  to  which 
he  was  about  to  return.  The  officer  retorted  in  an  angry  man- 


508  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

ner,  ordering  him  peremptorily  to  return  to  his  post.  Woods 
refused  to  obey.  The  officer  repeated  his  order  without  effect. 
A  loud  altercation  arose  between  them,  during  which  Woods 
became  exceedingly  enraged.  The  officer  ordered  the  bystand 
ers  to  arrest  him  ;  upon  which  Woods  reprimed  his  gun,  and 
swore  he  would  shoot  the  first  man  that  should  attempt  to 
seize  him.  The  scene  lasted  long  enough  for  word  that  a  man 
was  mutinying  to  be  conveyed  to  General  Jackson ;  who  rushed 
from  his  tent,  shouting, 

"  Which  is  the rascal  ?     Shoot  him  !   shoot  him  ! 

Blow  ten  balls  through  the villain's  body  !" 

By  the  time  Jackson  reached  the  spot,  however,  some  of 
Woods'  comrades  had  persuaded  him  to  give  up  his  gun  and 
submit  to  arrest.  He  was  immediately  put  in  irons,  taken  to 
the  camp  of  the  regiment  of  regulars,  and  placed  in  close 
confinement. 

Not  a  man  in  the  army,  least  of  all  Woods  himself,  seems 
to  have  thought  that  any  thing  very  serious  would  result  from 
this  offense.  Similar  affairs  had  occurred,  and  the  offender 
had  either  been  forgiven  after  a  short  arrest,  or  dismissed 
without  pay,  or,  at  worst,  drummed  in  disgrace  from  the 
camp.  Jackson,  however,  took  a  totally  different  view  of  the 
occurrence.  He  remembered  the  previous  flight  of  Woods' 
company,  and  was  not  aware,  and  never  learned,  that  Woods 
had  not  then  been  attached  to  the  company.  He  was  now  in 
command  of  the  largest  militia  and  volunteer  force  his  State 
had  ever  raised,  and  he  was  upon  the  point  of  setting  out 
upon  the  most  hazardous  and  difficult  expedition  he  had 
ever  planned.  He  thought  the  time  had  come  for  making  an 
example.  The  opinion  prevailed  in  the  army  that  no  general 
not  in  the  regular  service  would  dare  to  inflict  the  last  pen 
alty.  He  thought  it  due  to  the  service  to  show  that  this  was 
an  error.  Having  warred,  with  various  degrees  of  ill-success, 
against  mutiny  for  nearly  three  months,  the  stock  of  patience 
with  which  nature  had  endowed  him  was  exhausted.  He  re 
solved,  therefore,  to  let  the  affair  take  its  own  course,  and  if 
the  man  was  convicted  of  mutiny,  not  to  come  between  the 


1814.]  EXECUTION     OF     JOHN     WOODS.  509 

sentence  of  the  court  martial  and  its  execution.  He  made  no 
secret  of  this  resolution.  "  A  fellow  has  mutinied/'  he  said 
to  an  officer,  "  and  I  expect  he  will  have  to  be  shot/'  While 
the  court  martial  was  actually  in  session,  he  said  in  the  hear 
ing  of  its  members,  as  he  walked  up  and  down, 

"  Be  cautious,  and  mind  what  you  are  about  ;  for  by  the 
eternal  God,  the  next  man  that  is  condemned,  I  won't  par 
don  ;  and  this  is  a  hearty,  hale  young  fellow." 

On  the  12th  of  March,  in  the  open  forest,  between  two 
tents,  the  prisoner  sitting  upon  a  log,  the  trial  took  place. 
Five  officers  of  the  same  branch  of  the  service  to  which  the 
prisoner  himself  belonged,  constituted  the  court.  There  was 
a  reading  of  law  books  and  an  examining  of  witnesses  for 
some  hours,  the  prisoner,  as  I  infer,  still  sullen  and  defiant, 
sustained  by  the  conviction  that,  though  he  might  be  con 
demned,  the  sentence  of  death  could  not  be  inflicted. 

The  evidence  of  mutiny  was  abundant  and  indisputable. 
The  man  was  found  guilty,  and  condemned  to  die. 

Some  efforts  were  made  to  move  the  General,  but  he  was 
inflexible.  One  friend  of  Woods,  in  particular,  besought  him 
to  let  the  youth  of  the  prisoner  plead  for  him,  and  for  his 
aged  parents,  of  whom  he  was  a  main  stay  and  support. 
Jackson  replied  that  he  was  sorry  for  his  aged  parents,  but 
the  death  of  the  mutineer  was  just  and  necessary,  and  die  he 
must.  The  news  was  borne  to  Woods,  who  appears  to  have 
been  undismayed  to  the  last,  and  he  wrote  a  letter  of  farewell 
to  his  parents  in  rhyme. 

Two  days  after  the  trial  (March  14th),  the  whole  army 
was  drawn  up  to  witness  the  execution,  when  the  following 
general  order  was  read  : — 

"  JOHN  WOODS  : — You  have  been  tried  by  a  court  martial  on  the  charges 
of  disobedience  of  orders,  disrespect  to  your  commanding  officer,  and  mu 
tiny,  and  have  been  found  guilty  of  all  of  them.  The  court  which  has 
found  you  guilty  of  these  charges,  has  sentenced  you  to  suffer  death  by 
shooting,  and  this  sentence  the  commanding  general  has  thought  proper, 
and  even  felt  himself  bound,  to  approve,  and  to  order  it  to  be  executed. 

"  The  offenses  of  which  you  have  been  found  guilty  are  such  as  can  not 
VOL.  I. — 33 


010  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

be  permitted  to  pass  unpunished  in  an  army,  but  at  the  hazard  of  its  ruin. 
This  is  the  second  time  you  have  violated  the  duties  of  a  soldier — the  second 
time  you  have  been  guilty  of  offenses  the  punishment  of  which  is  death. 

"  When  you  had  been  regularly  mustered  into  the  service  of  your 
country,  and  were  marched  to  head-quarters  under  the  immediate  com 
mand  of  Brigadier  General  Roberts,  you  were  one  of  those  who,  in  viola 
tion  of  your  engagement— of  all  principles  of  honor,  and  of  the  order  of 
your  commanding  general,  rose  in  mutiny  and  deserted.  You  were  ar 
rested  and  brought  back ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  little  claim  you  had  to 
mercy,  your  general,  unwilling  to  inflict  the  severity  of  the  law,  and  influ 
enced  by  the  hope  that  you  would  atone  by  your  future  good  conduct  for 
your  past  error,  thought  proper  to  grant  you  all  a  pardon.  This  ought  to 
have  produced  a  salutary  impression  on  a  mind  not  totally  dead  to  every 
honorable  sentiment,  and  not  perversely  and  obstinately  bent  on  spreading 
disorder  and  confusion  in  the  army.  It,  unfortunately,  produced  no  such 
impression  on  yours.  But  a  few  weeks  after  you  had  been  brought  back, 
you  have  been  found  guilty  of  offenses  not  less  criminal  than  those  for 
which  you  had  so  recently  been  pardoned,  and  which,  if  the  law  had  been 
rigidly  enforced,  would  have  subjected  you  to  death.  This  evinces  but  too 
manifestly,  an  incorrigible  disposition  of  heart,  a  rebellious,  an  obstinate 
temper  of  mind,  which,  as  it  can  not  be  rectified,  ought  not  to  be  permitted 
to  diffuse  its  influence  among  others. 

"  An  army  can  not  exist  where  order  and  subordination  are  wholly  dis 
regarded.  It  can  not  exist  with  much  credit  to  itself,  or  service  to  the 
country  which  employs  it,  but  where  they  are  observed  with  the  most 
punctilious  exactness.  The  disobedience  of  orders  and  contempt  of  officers 
speedily  lead  to  a  state  of  disorganization  and  ruin ;  and  mutiny,  which  in 
cludes  the  others,  aims  still  more  immediately  at  the  dissolution  of  an  army. 
Of  all  these  offenses  you  have  been  twice  guilty,  and  have  once  been  par 
doned.  Your  general  must  forget  what  he  owes  to  the  service  he  is 
engaged  in,  and  to  the  country  which  employs  him,  if,  by  pardoning  you 
again,  he  should  furnish  an  example  to  sanction  measures  which  would 
bring  ruin  upon  the  army  he  commands.  This  is  an  important  crisis,  in 
which,  if  we  all  act  as  becomes  us,  every  thing  is  to  be  hoped  for  towards 
the  accomplishment  of  the  object  of  our  government ;  if  otherwise,  every 
thing  is  to  be  feared.  How  it  becomes  us  to  act  we  all  know,  and  what 
our  punishment  shall  be,  if  we  act  otherwise,  must  be  known  also.  The 
law  which  points  out  the  one,  prescribes  the  other.  Between  that  law  and 
its  offender  the  commanding  general  ought  not  to  be  expected  to  interpose, 
and  will  not  where  there  are  no  circumstances  of  alleviation.  There  ap 
pears  to  be  none  such  in  your  case  ;  and  however  as  a  man  he  may  deplore 
your  unhappy  situation,  he  can  not,  as  an  officer,  without  infringing  his 
duty,  arrest  the  sentence  of  the  court  martial" 


1814.]  EXECUTION     OF     JOHN     WOODS.  511 

The  sentence  was  then  executed,  and  the  army  dismissed 
to  quarters. 

The  reader  observes  in  the  general  order,  that  Jackson 
asserts  repeatedly  that  Woods  had  been  guilty  of  the  previous 
flight.  How  such  an  error  could  have  gone  uncorrected  at 
the  trial,  I  can  not  imagine,  unless  all  testimony  relative  to 
that  affair  was  ruled  out  as  irrelevant — as  it  might  properly 
have  been.  Captain  Harris,  the  commander  of  the  fugitive 
company,  and  four  of  its  privates,  in  language  as  positive  as 
they  could  employ,  declare  that  Woods  was  not  in  the  service 
until  the  company  assembled  for  the  second  time.  The  writer 
of  the  general  order,  not  suspecting  this,  introduced  the 
flight  and  pardon  of  the  company,  as  I  conjecture,  merely  to 
strengthen  the  case  against  the  prisoner  and  lessen  any  odium 
that  might  arise  from  his  summary  execution.  Jackson's 
secretaries  were  often  sorely  embarrassed  to  find  plausible 
reasons  for  the  conduct  of  their  chief.  Fearing  for  him 
more  than  he  feared  for  himself,  they  shrunk  from  clothing 
his  resolves  in  words,  and  would  go  out  of  their  way  to  find 
reasons  for  a  course  which,  they  thought,  it  would  not  do  to 
state  with  blunt  simplicity.  According  to  the  laws  of  war  of 
every  nation,  John  Woods  was  justly  condemned  to  death  for 
his  conduct  on  the  morning  when  he  was  on  guard  at  Fort 
Strother.  The  alleged  previous  offense  had  no  connection 
with  that,  and  need  not  have  been  referred  to. 

No  one  can  read  the  history  of  this  affair  without  feel 
ing  that,  considering  all  the  circumstances,  this  boy  might 
have  been  spared.  Certainly,  no  militia  general  that  ever 
served  the  United  States  would  have  sanctioned  the  execu 
tion,  except  General  Jackson.  It  is  equally  certain  that 
no  militia  general  that  was  then  in  service,  except  General 
Jackson,  could,  in  the  face  of  such  difficulties  as  those  which 
he  encountered  and  mastered,  have  saved  the  campaign,  pro 
tected  the  frontiers,  subdued  the  Creeks,  and  gained  every 
object  proposed  to  be  gained  by  the  war.  Every  character 
must  be  taken  with  the  exceptions  that  belong  to  it.  Where 
we  admire  much,  we  have  to  forgive  much.  While  every  one 


512  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

will  wish  that  John  Woods  had  not  been  shot,  few  have  had 
the  experience  which  alone  would  justify  them  in  declaring 
that  he  ought  not  to  have  been. 

The  effect  of  the  execution  upon  the  army  is  said  to  have 
been  salutary.  A  promptness  of  obedience  and  a  regularity 
of  discipline,  before  unknown  among  western  militia,  are  de 
clared  to  have  marked  the  conduct  of  the  troops  during  the 
remainder,  the  brief  and  brilliant  remainder,  of  the  campaign. 
If  there  was  any  murmuring  in  the  army  at  the  severity  of 
the  sentence,  it  was  directed  against  the  court  martial,  not 
the  General.  Events  soon  succeeded  which  placed  him  in  a 
commanding  light  before  the  whole  nation,  and  drowned  in  a 
torrent  of  applause  all  disagreeable  recollections  connected 
with  the  war. 


CHAPTER    XLVIII. 

THE    FINISHING    BLOW. 

THE  attention  of  the  reader  is  now  to  be  directed  to  a 
remarkable  "  BEND"  of  the  river  Tallapoosa,  about  fifty-five 
miles  from  Fort  Strother,  the  scene,  for  so  many  weeks,  of 
General  Jackson's  strenuous  endeavors. 

The  word  RIVER,  it  may  be  premised,  calls  up  in  the  mind 
of  an  inhabitant  of  the  Atlantic  States  different  ideas  and 
pictures  from  those  which  it  suggests  to  one  who  knows  only 
the  rivers  of  the  West.  The  great  eastern  riv.ers  show  their 
kinship  to  the  ocean  by  a  certain  living  freshness  of  aspect, 
which  we  miss  in  our  western  travels.  Our  rivers  are  always 
full — brimming  full ;  seeming,  in  some  conditions  of  the 
atmosphere,  even  to  lift  their  broad  bosoms,  swelling  up  to 
meet  the  dalliance  of  the  breeze.  They  are  clean  rivers  ;  the 
banks  green  to  the  water's  edge  ;  the  water  of  a  crisp  and 


1814.]  THE     FINISHING     BLOW.  513 

sea-like  quality.  The  foam  in  the  steamboat's  wake  is  whiter, 
noisier,  more  abundant,  more  lasting  than  that  which  covers 
the  path  of  a  boat  on  a  river  of  the  West.  The  Atlantic 
rivers  turn  neither  abruptly  nor  often ;  but,  in  long  reaches, 
from  ten  to  fifty  miles  without  any  considerable  deviation, 
flow  on  in  a  deep,  full,  tranquil,  widening  stream,  till  they 
exchange  waters  with  the  ocean. 

A  western  river  has  beauties  of  its  own  ;  but  it  is  a  dead 
thing  compared  with  the  Hudson  or  the  Delaware.  The  life 
and  sparkle  of  salt  are  wanting  to  it.  In  the  season  of  rain 
and  snow-melting  it  is  a  mad  and  dangerous  torrent,  yellow 
with  soil,  and  covered  with  the  spoils  of  the  invaded  shores. 
When  the  flood  subsides,  the  river  assumes  that  torpid  as 
pect  to  which  we  have  Deferred.  A  dreary  interval  of  yellow, 
steep,  barren  bank  lies  between  the  stream  and  the  line  of 
vegetation,  almost  destroying  to  an  eastern  eye  the  beauty 
of  the  scene.  The  river  seems  to  mar  the  prospect,  instead 
of  enlivening  it. 

The  "  bends"  of  the  western  rivers  are,  however,  the  pe 
culiarity  which  distinguishes  them  most,  and  with  which  our 
narrative  concerns  itself  here  and  elsewhere.  Always  rising 
or  falling,  the  western  streams  are  also  always  bending.  The 
Ohio,  for  example,  is  nearly  a  thousand  miles  long,  but  bears 
the  traveler  little  more  than  half  that  distance  upon  his  way. 
Those  rivers  coil  themselves  into  curious  loops,  forming  pe 
ninsulas  of  great  extent,  the  isthmuses  of  which  may  not  be 
more  than  a  rifle-shot  across.  Thus  it  is,  that  one  of  these 
streams  will  drain  and  water  an  extent  of  country  prodig 
iously  disproportionate  to  its  volume  of  waters  ;  as  though 
nature,  that  seems  to  be  lavish,  but  is  strictly  economical, 
meant  that  every  river  should  do  all  it  could  for  its  coun 
try  before  giving  it  honorable  discharge  into  a  mightier 
stream.  Upon  these  bends  the  old  forts  were  built,  around 
which  gathered  the  log  villages,  which  grew  into  those  cities 
of  the  West  which  are  among  the  wonders  of  the  modern 
world. 

The  Tallapoosa  and  the  Coosa  are  the  rivers  which  unite 


514  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

in  the  southern  part  of  Alabama,  and  form  the  Alabama 
river.  The  bend  of  which  we  speak  is  about  midway  be 
tween  the  source  and  the  mouth  of  the  Tallapoosa.  It  occurs 
where  the  stream  is  not  fordable  during  the  spring  rains,  but 
is  not  wide  enough  to  present  a  very  serious  obstacle  to  an 
Indian  swimmer.  From  the  shape  of  this  peninsula  the  In 
dians  called  it  Tohopeka,  which  means  Horseshoe.  It  con- 
'tains  a  hundred  acres  of  land,  since  a  cotton  field.  The  neck, 
or  isthmus,  is  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  yards  across. 
The  ground  rises  somewhat  from  the  edge  of  the  water.  It 
was  a  wild,  rough  piece  of  ground,  abounding  in  places  which 
would  afford  covert  to  an  Indian  warrior.  At  the  time  Of 
which  we  write,  the  surrounding  country,  for  a  hundred 
miles  or  more,  was  a  nearly  unbrolfen  wilderness  of  forest, 
swamp,  and  cane,  marked  only  by  the  trail  of  wild  beasts  and 
the  "  trace"  of  wild  men.  As  well  from  its  situation  as  its 
form,  this  place  was  entitled  to  be  styled  the  heart  of  the  In 
dian  country. 

Here  it  was  that  the  evil  genius  of  the  Creeks  prompted 
them  to  assemble  the  warriors  of  all  the  tribes  residing  in 
that  vicinity,  to  make  a  stand  against  the  great  army  with 
which,  their  runners  told  them,  General  Jackson  was  prepar 
ing  to  overrun  the  Indian  country.  The  long  delays  at  Fort 
Strother  had  given  them  time  to  prepare  for  his  reception, 
and  they  had  well  improved  that  time.  As  the  Indian  is  not 
a  fortifying  creature,  it  seems  improbable  that  Indians  alone 
were  concerned  in  putting  this  peninsula  into  the  state  of  de 
fense  in  which  Jackson  found  it  on  the  27th  of  March,  1814. 
Across  the  neck  of  the  peninsula  they  had  built  (of  logs)  a 
breastwork  of  immense  strength,  pierced  with  two  rows  of 
port-holes.  The  line  of  defense  was  so  drawn  that  an  ap 
proaching  enemy  would  be  exposed  both  to  a  direct  and  a 
raking  fire.  Behind  the  breastwork  was  a  mass  of  logs  and 
brushwood,  such  as  Indians  delight  to  fight  from.  At  the 
bottom  of  the  peninsula,  near  the  river,  was  a  village  of  huts. 
The  banks  of  the  river  were  fringed  with  the  canoes  of  the 
savage  garrison,  so  that  they  possessed  the  means  of  retreat, 


1814.]  THE     FINISHING     BLOW.  5X5 

as  well  as  of  defense.  The  greater  part  of  the  peninsula  was 
still  covered  with  the  primeval  forest.  Within  this  extensive 
fortification  were  assembled  about  nine  hundred  warriors  of 
various  Creek  tribes  and  about  three  hundred  women  and 
children. 

The  Indian  force  was  small  to  defend  so  extensive  a  line 
of  fortification.  But  a  variety  of  circumstances  conspired  to 
give  the  savage  garrison  confidence  ;  such  as,  the  impregnable 
strength  of  the  breastwork,  its  peculiar  construction,  the  fa 
cilities  afforded  in  the  interior  of  the  bend  for  the  Indian 
mode  of  fighting,  the  partial  successes  gained  by  the  Indians 
at  Emuckfaw  and  Enotochopco — of  which  they  continually 
boasted,  averring  that  they  had  made  "Captain  Jackson" 
run — and,  above  all,  the  positive  and  reiterated  predictions  ol 
their  prophets.  Three  of  the  most  famous  of  the  prophets 
were  there,  performing  their  incantations  day  and  night,  and 
keeping  alive  that  religious  fury  which  had  played  so  great  a 
part  in  previous  battles.  And  besides,  in  case  the  breastwork 
were,  carried,  and  the  bend  overrun,  how  easy  to  rush  to  the 
canoes  and  paddle  across  the  river,  laughing  at  their  baffled 
assailants  as  they  vanished  into  the  woods  on  the  opposite 
shore  !  So  thought  the  Creeks. 

Jackson  was  eleven  days  in  marching  his  army  the  fifty- 
five  miles  of  untrodden  wilderness  that  lay  between  Fort 
Strother  and  the  Horseshoe  bend  of  the  Tallapoosa.  Roads 
had  to  be  cut,  the  Coosa  explored,  boats  waited  for  and  res 
cued  from  the  shoals,  high  ridges  crossed,  Fort  Williams 
built  and  garrisoned  to  keep  open  the  line  of  communication, 
and  numerous  other  difficulties  overcome,  before  he  could 
penetrate  to  the  vicinity  of  the  bend.  It  was  early  in  the 
morning  of  March  the  27th  that — with  an  army  diminished 
by  garrisoning  the  posts  to  two  thousand  men — he  reached 
the  scene  and  prepared  to  commence  operations. 

Perceiving,  at  one  glance,  that  the  Indians  had  simply 
penned  themselves  up  for  slaughter,  his  first  measure  was  to 
send  General  Coffee,  with  all  the  mounted  men  and  friendly 
Indians,  to  cross  the  river  two  miles  below,  where  it  was  ford- 


516  LIFE     OF     ANDKEW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

able,  to  take  a  position  on  the  bank  opposite  the  line  of  ca 
noes,  and  so  cut  off  the  retreat.  This  was  promptly  executed 
by  the  ever-reliable  Coffee,  who  soon  announced  by  a  con 
certed  signal  that  he  had  reached  the  station  assigned  him. 
Jackson  then  planted  his  two  pieces  of  cannon — one  a  three 
the  other  a  six-pounder — upon  an  eminence  eighty  yards  from 
the  nearest  point  of  the  breastwork,  whence,  at  half  past  ten 
in  the  morning,  he  opened  fire  upon  it.  His  sharp-shooters, 
also,  were  drawn  up  near  enough  to  get  an  occasional  shot  at 
an  Indian  within  the  bend. 

A  steady  fire  of  cannon  and  rifles  was  kept  up  in  front  for 
two  hours,  without  producing  any  hopeful  beginning  of  a 
breach  in  the  breastwork.  The  little  cannon  balls  buried 
themselves  in  the  logs,  or  in  the  earth  between  them,  with 
out  doing  decisive  harm.  The  Indians  whooped  in  derision 
as  they  struck  and  disappeared. 

Meanwhile,  General  Coffee,  not  content  to  remain  inac 
tive,  hit  upon  a  line  of  conduct  that  proved  eminently  effect 
ive.  He  sent  some  of  the  best  swimmers  among  his  force  oi 
friendly  Indians  across  the  river,  to  cut  loose  and  bring  away 
the  canoes  of  the  beleaguered  Creeks.  That  done,  he  used 
the  canoes  for  sending  over  a  party  of  men  under  Colonel 
Morgan,  with  orders,  first,  to  set  fire  to  the  cluster  of  huts  at 
the  bottom  of  the  bend,  and  then  to  rush  forward  and  attack 
the  Indians  behind  the  breastwork. 

This  was  gallantly  done.  The  force  under  Jackson  soon 
perceived,  from  the  smoke  of  the  burning  huts,  and  from  the 
rattling  fire  behind  the  breastwork,  that  General  Coffee  was 
up  and  doing.  Soon,  however,  that  fire  was  observed  to 
slacken,  and  it  became  apparent  that  Morgan's  force  was  too 
small  to  do  more  than  distract  and  divide  the  attention  of  the 
assailed.  This,  however,  alone,  was  an  immense  advantage. 
Jackson's  men  saw  it,  and  clamored  for  the  order  to  assault. 
The  General  hesitated  many  minutes  before  giving  an  order 
that  would  inevitably  send  so  many  of  his  brave  fellows  to 
their  account,  and  the  issue  of  which  was  doubtful.  The 
order  came  at  length,  and  was  received  with  a  general  shout. 


1814.]  THE     FINISHING     BLOW.  517 

The  thirty-ninth  regiment,  under  Colonel  Williams,  the 
brigade  of  East  Tennesseans  tinder  Colonel  Bunch,  marched 
rapidly  up  to  the  breastwork  and  delivered  a  volley  through 
the  port-holes.  The  Indians  returned  the  fire  with  effect, 
and,  muzzle  to  muzzle,  the  combatants  for  a  short  time  con 
tended.  *  Major  L.  P.  Montgomery,  of  the  thirty-am th,  was 
the  first  man  to  spring  upon  the  breastwork,  where,  calling 
upon  his  men  to  follow,  he  received  a  ball  in  his  head  and  fell 
dead  to  the  ground.  At  that  critical  moment,  young  Ensign 
Houston  mounted  the  breastwork.  A  barbed  arrow  pierced 
his  thigh  ;  but,  nothing  dismayed,  this  gallant  youth,  calling 
his  comrades  to  follow,  leaped  down  among  the  Indians,  and 
soon  cleared  a  space  around  him  with  his  vigorous  right  arm. 
Joined  in  a  moment  by  parties  of  his  own  regiment,  and  by  large 
numbers  of  the  East  Tennesseeans,  the  breastwork  was  soon 
cleared,  the  Indians  retiring  before  them  into  the  underbrush. 

*  In  a  private  letter  to  one  of  his  officers,  (April  1,  1814,)  General  Jackson 
thus  narrates  the  opening  of  the  attack  on  the  Horseshoe: — "I  reached  Toho- 
peka  half  after  ten,  A.  M.,  and  was  hailed  with  a  challenge  to  the  combat  from 
the  strong  walls.  The  cannon,  under  the  direction  of  Captain  Bradford,  chief  en 
gineer,  was  directed  to  open  a  brisk  fire  upon  their  wall,  at  a  distance  of  about 
two  hundred  yards  on  our  left,  and  one  hundred  yards  on  our  right.  At  this 
moment,  I  was  advised  General  Coffee  was  at  his  post.  The  order  was  imme 
diately  put  into  execution ;  and,  notwithstanding  every  shot  penetrated  the  for 
tress,  and  carried  with  it  death  and  destruction;  still,  such  was  the  strength  of 
the  wall,  that  it  never  shook.  After  firing  about  seventy  rounds  at  it,  and  find 
ing  the  Cherokees,  Captain  Russell's  spies,  and  a  number  of  General  Coffee's 
brigade,  had  effected  a  landing,  and  had  attacked  the  enemy  on  the  rear — find 
ing  that  the  Creeks  beat  them  back,  and  that  our  friends  were  suffering,  I  deter 
mined  to  storm  their  works.  At  half  after  twelve  o'clock  the  order  was  given, 
the  long  roll  beat,  and  the  works  carried.  Never  was  more  bravery  displayed. 
Every  officer  done  his  duty.  The  thirty-ninth  regiment,  led  on  by  the  gallant 
Colonel  Williams  and  Major  Montgomery,  in  the  center;  the  right  by  the  gal 
lant  Colonel  Bunch;  the  advanced  guard,  who  had  been  formed  on  the  right  of 
the  artillery,  by  the  brave  Colonel  Sitler;  the  left  by  Captain  Gordon,  of  the 
spies,  and  Captain  Murry,  of  General  Johnson's  brigade,  all  distinguished  them 
selves.  Captain  Camp,  acting  deputy  quarter-master,  and  Colonel  Carroll,  in 
spector  general,  went  with  the  foremost,  and  James  Lewis,  of  the  artillery, 
although  wounded,  was  amongst  the  foremost.  In  fact,  it  was  difficult  to  detain 
the  artillerymen  at  their  posts,  although  ten  had  been  previously  wounded.  The 
carnage  was  dreadful." — Nashville  Whig  of  April  21th,  1814. 


518  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

The  wounded  ensign  sat  down  within  the  fortification, 
and  called  a  lieutenant  of  his  company  to  draw  the  arrow 
from  his  thigh.  Two  vigorous  pulls  at  the  barbed  weapon 
failed  to  extract  it.  In  a  fury  of  pain  and  impatience,  Houston 
cried,  "  Try  again,  and  if  you  fail  this  time,  I  will  smite  you 
to  the  earth."  Exerting  all  his  strength,  the  lieutenant  drew 
forth  the  arrow,  tearing  the  flesh  fearfully,  and  causing  an 
effusion  of  blood  that  compelled  the  wounded  man  to  hurry 
over  the  breastwork  to  get  the  wound  bandaged.  While  he 
was  lying  on  the  ground  under  the  surgeon's  hands,  the  Gen 
eral  rode  up,  and  recognizing  his  young  acquaintance,  ordered 
him  not  to  cross  the  breastwork  again.  Houston  begged  him 
to  recall  the  order,  but  the  General  repeated  it  peremptorily 
and  rode  on.  In  a  few  minutes,  the  ensign  had  disobeyed 
the  command,  and  was  once  more  with  his  company,  in  the 
thick  of  that  long  hand-to-hand  engagement  which  consumed 
the  hours  of  the  afternoon. 

Not  an  Indian  asked  for  quarter,  nor  would  accept  it 
when  offered.  From  behind  trees  and  logs  ;  from  clefts  in 
.the  river's  banks  ;  from  among  the  burning  huts  ;  from 
chance  log-piles  ;  from  temporary  fortifications  ;  the  desper 
ate  red  men  fired  upon  the  troops.  A  large  number  plunged 
into  the  river  and  attempted  to  escape  by  swimming  ;  but 
from  Coffee's  men  on  one  bank,  and  Jackson's  on  the  other, 
a  hailstorm  of  bullets  flew  over  the  stream,  and  the  painted- 
heads  dipped  beneath  its  blood-stained  ripples.  The  battle 
became,  at  length,  a  slow,  laborious  slaughter.  From  all 
parts  of  the  peninsula  resounded  the  yells  of  the  savages,  the 
shouts  of  the  assailants,  and  the  reports  of  the  fire-arms  ; 
while  the  gleam  of  the  uplifted  tomahawk  was  seen  among 
the  branches. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  afternoon  it  was  observed  that  a 
considerable  number  of  the  Indians  had  found  a  refuge  under 
the  bluffs  of  the  river,  where  a  part  of  the  breastwork,  the 
formation  of  the  ground,  and  the  felled  trees,  gave  them  com 
plete  protection.  Desirous  to  end  this  horrible  carnage,  Jack 
son  sent  a  friendly  Indian  to  announce  to  them  that  their  lives 


1814.]  THE     FINISHING     BLOW.  519 

should  be  spared  if  they  would  surrender.  They  were  silent 
for  a  moment,  as  if  in  consultation,  and  then  answered  the 
summons  by  a  volley,  which  sent  the  interpreter  bleeding 
from  the  scene.  The  cannon  were  now  brought  up,  and 
played  upon  the  spot  without  effect.  Jackson  then  called 
for  volunteers  to  charge  ;  but  the  Indians  were  so  well  posted, 
that,  for  a  minute,  no  one  responded  to  the  call.  Ensign 
Houston  again  emerges  into  view  on  this  occasion.  Ordering 
his  platoon  to  follow,  but  not  waiting  to  see  if  they  would 
follow,  he  rushed  to  the  overhanging  bank,  which  sheltered 
the  foe,  and  through  openings  of  which  they  were  firing. 
Over  this  mine  of  desperate  savages  he  paused,  and  looked 
back  for  his  men.  At  that  moment  he  received  two  balls  in 
his  right  shoulder ;  his  arm  fell  powerless  to  his  side  ;  he 
staggered  out  of  the  fire  ;  and  lay  down  totally  disabled.  His 
share  in  that  day's  work  was  done. 

Several  valuable  lives  were  afterwards  lost  in  vain  endeav 
ors  to  dislodge  the  enemy  from  their  well-chosen  covert.  As 
the  sun  was  going  down,  fire  was  set  to  the  logs  and  under 
brush,  which  overspread  and  surrounded  this  last  refuge  of 
the  Creeks.  The  place  soon  grew  too  hot  to  hold  them. 
Singly,  and  by  twos  and  threes,  they  ran  from  the  ravine, 
and  fell  as  they  ran,  before  the  fire  of  a  hundred  riflemen  on 
the  watch  for  the  starting  of  the  game. 

The  carnage  lasted  as  long  as  there  was  light  enough  to 
see  a  skulking  or  a  flying  enemy.  It  was  impossible  to  spare. 
The  Indians  fought  after  they  were  wounded,  and  gave 
wounds  to  men  who  sought  to  save  their  lives  ;  for  they 
thought  that  if  spared  they  would  be  spared  only  for  a  more 
painful  death.  Night  fell  at  last,  and  recalled  the  troops 
from  their  bloody  work  to  gather  wounded  comrades,  and 
minister  to  their  necessities.  It  was  a  night  of  horror.  Along 
the  banks  of  the  river,  all  around  the  bend,  Indians,  the 
wounded  and  the  unhurt,  were  crouching  in  the  clefts,  under 
the  brushwood,  and,  in  some  instances,  under  the  heaps  of 
slain,  watching  for  an  opportunity  to  escape.  Many  did 
escape,  and  some  lay  until  the  morning,  fearing  to  attempt  it. 


520  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

One  noted  chief,  covered  with  wounds,  took  to  the  water  in 
the  evening,  and  lay  beneath  the  surface,  drawing  his  breath 
through  a  hollow  cane,  until  it  was  dark  enough  to  swim 
across.  He  escaped,  and  lived  to  tell  his  story  and  show  his 
scars,  many  years  after,  to  the  historian  of  Alabama,  from 
whom  we  have  derived  the  incident.  In  the  morning,  parties 
of  the  troops  again  scoured  the  peninsula,  and  ferreted  from 
their  hiding-places  sixteen  more  warriors,  who,  refusing  still 
to  surrender,  were  added  to  the  number  of  the  slain. 

Wellington  used  to  say,  in  conversing  upon  Waterloo, 
that  there  was  only  one  thing  more  terrible  than  a  great  de 
feat,  and  that  was  a  great  victory.  Jackson's  soldiers,  on 
this  occasion,  were  too  much  fatigued,  or  too  busy,  to  indulge 
the  sentiment  of  the  situation,  else  a  strange  blending  of  joy 
and  horror  must  have  possessed  their  minds  in  the  presence  of 
so  much  death  and  misery.  Upon  counting  the  dead,  five 
hundred  and  fifty-seven  was  found  to  be  the  number  of  the 
fallen  enemy  within  the  peninsula.  Two  hundred  more,  it 
was  computed,  had  found  a  grave  at  the  bottom  of  the  river. 
Many  more  died  in  the  woods  attempting  to  escape.  Jack 
son's  loss  was  fifty-five  killed  and  one  hundred  and  forty-six 
wounded  ;  of  whom  more  than  half  were  friendly  Indians. 
The  three  prophets  of  the  Creeks,  fantastically  dressed  and 
decorated,  were  found  among  the  dead.  One  of  them,  while 
engaged  in  his  incantations,  had  received  a  grape  shot  in  his 
mouth,  which  killed  him  instantly.  These  men  had  fully 
confirmed  their  followers  in  the  belief  that  no  mercy  would 
be  shown  to  those  who  should  surrender.  A  young  warrior 
who  was  brought  in  badly  wounded  to  the  surgeons,  said, 
as  they  were  dressing  his  wounds,  "  Cure  him,  kill  him 
again."  The  General,  who  was  standing  by,  assured  him 
that  he  had  no  such  intention.  He  recovered,  and  was  after 
wards  taken  home  by  Jackson  to  Tennessee,  where  he  learned 
a  trade,  married  a  colored  woman,  and  established  himself  in 
business. 

The  fortunes  of  another  of  the  wounded  men  of  this  battle 
will  interest  the  reader,  and  assist  him  to  realize  what  is  meant 


1814.]  THE     FINISHING     BLOW. 

when,  in  the  report  of  a  battle,  it  is  stated  that  so  many  hun 
dreds  or  so  many  thousands  were  "  wounded  badly."  We 
left  Ensign  Houston  prostrate  within  the  bend,  with  two 
balls  in  his  shoulder  and  a  ghastly  wound  in  his  thigh.  His 
anonymous  biographer,  who  derived  the  facts  from  General 
Houston  himself,  continues  the  story  : — 

"  He  was  taken  from  the  field  of  the  dead  and  wounded,  and  committed 
to  the  hands  of  the  surgeon.  One  ball  was  extracted,  but  no  attempt  was 
made  to  extract  the  other,  for  the  surgeon  said  it  was  unnecessary  to  tor 
ture  him,  since  he  could  not  survive  till  the  next  morning.  He  spent  the 
night  as  soldiers  do,  who  war  in  the  wilderness,  and  carry  provisions  in 
their  knapsacks  for  a  week's  march.  Comforts  were  out  of  the  question 
for  any ;  but  Houston  received  less  attention  than  the  others,  for  every 
body  looked  on  him  as  a  dying  man,  and  what  could  be  done  for  any,  they 
felt  should  be  done  for  those  who  were  likely  to  live.  It  was  the  darkest 
night  of  his  life,  and  it  closed  in  upon  the  most  brilliant  day  he  had  yet 
seen.  We  can  fancy  to  ourselves  what  must  have  been  the  feelings  of  the 
young  soldier,  as  he  lay  on  the  damp  earth,  through  the  hours  of  that 
dreary  night,  racked  with  the  keen  torture  of  his  many  wounds,  and  de 
serted  in  what  he  supposed  to  be  his  dying  hour. 

"  On  the  following  day,  Houston  was  started  on  a  litter,  with  the  other 
wounded,  for  Fort  Williams,  some  sixty  or  seventy  miles  distant.  Here  he 
remained,  suspended  between  life  and  death,  for  a  long  time,  neglected  and 
exposed,  the  other  regular  officers  of  the  regiment  having  all  been  removed 
to  Fort  Jackson,  or  the  Hickory  Ground.  He  was  taken  care  of  a  part  of 
the  time  by  General  Johnson,  father  of  the  Postmaster  General  of  that 
name,  and  by  Colonel  Cheatham,  and  by  them  at  last  brought  back  to  the 
Ten  Islands,  and  from  thence  by  General  Dougherty,  who  commanded  the 
brigade  from  East  Tennessee,  through  the  Cherokee  nation,  to  his  mother's 
house  in  Blount  county,  where  he  arrived  in  the  latter  part  of  May,  nearly 
two  months  after  the  battle  of  the  Horseshoe. 

"  This  long  journey  was  made  in  a  litter,  borne  by  horses,  while  he  was 
not  only  helpless,  but  suffering  the  extremest  agony.  His  diet  was  of  the 
coarsest  description,  and  most  of  the  time  he  was  not  only  deprived  of 
medical  aid,  but  even  of  those  simple  remedies  which  would,  at  least,  have 
alleviated  his  sufferings.  His  toilsome  way  was  through  the  forests,  where 
he  was  obliged  to  camp  out,  and  often  without  shelter.  No  one  around 
him  had  any  expectation  he  would  ever  recover.  At  last,  when  he  reached 
the  house  of  his  mother,  he  was  so  worn  to  a  skeleton,  that  she  declared 
she  never  would  have  known  him  to  be  her  son  but  for  his  eyes,  which 
still  retained  something  of  their  wonted  expression." 


522  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

Those  who  had  the  opportunity  of  observing  the  erect  and 
towering  form  of  Senator  Houston,  the  commanding  Indian 
grace  of  his  attitudes  and  gestures,  when,  on  his  last  public 
visit  to  the  North,  he  appeared  before  us  at  Niblo's  Garden  as 
the  champion  and  defender  of  the  Indians,  could  not  have 
supposed  that  he  had  ever  been  in  such  forlorn  and  desperate 
case  as  this.  If  we  had  known  it,  it  would  have  added  force 
to  the  Senator's  bold  and  repeated  assertion,  that  in  our 
Indian  difficulties,  from  the  beginning,  the  Indian  has  never 
been  the  aggressor,  but  always  the  party  injured  !  It  was  a 
noble  thing  of  a  man  to  say  who  bore  such  scars  under  his 
broadcloth.* 


*  There  are  those  who  will  read  with  interest  General  Coffee's  brief,  hurried 
account  of  this  celebrated  battle,  written  at  Fort  Williams  on  the  1st  of  April, 
to  Captain  Donelson : — 

"  "We  found  the  enemy  enforted  in  the  bend  of  the  river,  with  a  very  strong 
breastwork.  Before  we  reached  them,  six  miles,  I  was  detached  with  seven 
hundred  mounted  men,  and  six  hundred  friendly  Indians  to  cross  the  river  three 
miles  below,  and  take  possession  of  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  to  prevent  the 
enemy  from  crossing,  and  escaping  our  army  when  attacked.  All  our  plans 
were  executed  to  great  advantage  indeed.  Just  as  I  had  formed  my  men  in 
line,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  river,  the  cannon  of  our  army  in  front 
commenced  firing ;  and  before  one  Indian  crossed  the  river  we  had  possession 
of  the  bank.  The  greater  part  of  the  enemy  fought  with  savage  fury,  while 
others  of  them  ran  in  all  directions,  throwing  themselves  into  the  river,  and 
attempting  to  swim  over ;  but  not  one  escaped  in  that  way. 

"  The  battle  commenced  at  half  after  ten  in  the  morning  and  continued  until 
night.  Our  cannon  plaj-ed  on  their  breastwork  near  two  hours,  together  with 
a  great  discharge  of  small  arms,  when  our  men  charged  their  walls  by  storm, 
which  was  done  with  great  vigor  and  success.  Before  we  stormed  their  works, 
the  friendly  Indians  had  got  in  the  rear  of  the  enemy,  which  prevented  them 
from  flying  back  to  their  buildings.  They  stood  the  charge  to  admiration,  and 
it  was  not  unusual  for  the  muzzles  of  the  guns  of  both  parties  to  meet  in  the 
port-holes,  and  both  fire  at  the  same  time.  But  the  enemy  was  obliged  to  fly 
to  the  river;  when  all  the  remaining  part,  that  had  not  been  killed  before,  were 
shot  in  the  water,  except  a  few  that  hid  under  the  banks  of  the  river,  whom  our 
men  continued  to  find  and  kill  until  it  became  too  dark  to  see.  Perhaps  fifteen 
or  twenty  swam  out  that  night,  which  is  all  that  escaped.  The  slaughter  was 
greater  than  all  we  had  done  before.  We  killed  not  less  than  eight  hundred 
and  fifty  or  nine  hundred  of  them,  and  took  about  five  hundred  squaws  and 
children  prisoners.  The  Hickory  Ground  is  the  next  object ;  but  how  soon,  we 


1814.]  THE     FINISHING     BLOW.  523 

One  would  have  expected  General  Jackson  to  pause  in  his 
operations  after  such  an  affair  as  that  of  the  Horseshoe. 
Nothing  was  further  from  his  thoughts.  "  In  war/'  his 
maxim  was,  "  till  every  thing  is  done,  nothing  is  done/'  On 
the  morning  after  the  battle  he  began  at  once  to  prepare  for  a 
retrograde  movement  as  far  as  Fort  Williams,  the  fort  which 
he  had  built  on  his  march  from  Fort  Strother.  He  had 
brought  wkh  him  into  the  heart  of  the  wilderness  but  seven 
days'  provisions.  Before  pushing  his  conquests  further,  it 
was  necessary  both  to  procure  supplies  and  place  his  long 
train  of  wounded  in  a  place  of  safety  and  comfort.  He  was 
up  betimes,  therefore,  and  passed  a  busy  morning.  His  dead 
were  sunk  in  the  river  to  prevent  their  being  scalped  by  the 
returning  savages.  Litters  were  prepared  for  the  wounded. 
A  brief,  imperfect  account  of  the  battle  was  dispatched  to 
General  Pinckney.  Before  the  sun  was  many  hours  on  his 
course,  all  things  were  in  readiness,  and  the  army  set  out  on 
its  return. 

Five  days'  march  brought  them  to  Fort  Williams.  There 
the  wounded  were  cared  for,  the  friendly  Indians  dismissed, 
and  the  troops  publicly  thanked,  praised  and  congratulated. 
The  address  which  the  General  caused  to  be  read  on  this  oc 
casion  to  his  victorious  troops  was  very  characteristic  of  the 
man.  If  any  of  his  soldiers,  as  probably  was  the  case,  had  an 
ticipated  a  speedy  and  joyful  return  home  after  their  victory, 
it  effectually  put  to  flight  such  anticipations. 

"  You  have  entitled  yourselves,"  it  began,  "  to  the  grati 
tude  of  your  country  and  your  general.  The  expedition,  from 
which  you  have  just  returned,  has,  by  your  good  conduct,  been 
rendered  prosperous  beyond  any  example  in  the  history  of  our 
warfare :  it  has  redeemed  the  character  of  your  State,  and 
of  that  description  of  troops  of  which  the  greater  part  of 
you  are. 

"  You  have,  within  a  few  days,  opened  your  way  to  the 

can  not  tell.  Our  horses  are  worn  down,  and  I  fear  will  all  die.  I  will  only 
add  that  things  are  quite  different  here  to  what  they  were  in  our  former  army. 
All  is  now  content — no  murmuring  to  be  heard." 


524  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

Tallapoosa,  and  destroyed  a  confederacy  of  the  enemy,  fero 
cious  by  nature,  and  who  had  grown  insolent  from  impunity. 
Kelying  on  their  numbers,  the  security  of  their  situation,  and 
the  assurances  of  their  prophets,  they  derided  our  approach, 
and  already  exulted  in  anticipation  of  the  victory  they  ex 
pected  to  obtain.  But  they  were  ignorant  of  the  influence 
and  effect  of  government  on  the  human  powers,  nor  knew 
what  brave  men,  and  civilized,  could  effect.  By  their  yells, 
they  hoped  to  frighten  us,  and  with  their  wooden  fortifica 
tions  to  oppose  us.  Stupid  mortals  !  their  yells  but  desig 
nated  their  situation  the  more  certainly  ;  while  their  walls 
became  a  snare  for  their  own  destruction.  So  will  it  ever  be, 
when  presumption  and  ignorance  contend  against  bravery  and 
prudence. 

"  The  fiends  of  the  Tallapoosa  will  no  longer  murder  our 
women  and  children,  or  disturb  the  quiet  of  our  borders. 
Their  midnight  flambeaux  will  no  more  illumine  their  coun 
cil  house,  or  shine  upon  the  victim  of  their  infernal  orgies. 
In  their  places,  a  new  generation  will  arise,  who  will  know 
their  duty  better.  The  weapons  of  warfare  will  be  exchanged 
for  the  utensils  of  husbandry  ;  and  the  wilderness,  which 
now  withers  in  sterility,  and  mourns  the  desolation  which 
overspreads  her,  will  blossom  as  the  rose,  and  become  the 
nursery  of  the  arts.  But  before  this  happy  day  can  arrive, 
other  chastisements  remain  to  be  inflicted.  It  is  indeed  la 
mentable  that  the  path  to  peace  should  lead  through  blood 
and  over  the  bodies  of  the  slain  :  but  it  is  a  dispensation  of 
Providence,  and  perhaps  a  wise  one  to  inflict  partial  evils  that 
ultimate  good  may  be  produced. 

"  Our  enemies  are  not  sufficiently  humbled, — they  do  not 
sue  for  peace.  A  collection  of  them  await  our  approach,  and 
remain  to  be  dispersed.  Buried  in  ignorance,  and  seduced  by 
the  false  pretenses  of  their  prophets,  they  have  the  weakness 
to  believe  they  will  still  be  able  to  make  a  decided  stand 
against  us.  They  must  be  undeceived,  and  made  to  atont? 
their  obstinacy  and  their  crimes,  by  still  further  suffering 
Those  hopes  which  have  so  long  deluded  them  must  be 


1814.]  THE     FINISHING     BLOW.  525 

driven  from  their  last  refuge.  They  must  be  made  to 
know  that  their  prophets  are  impostors,  and  that  our 
strength  is  mighty  and  will  prevail.  Then,  and  not  till 
then,  may  we  expect  to  make  with  them  a  peace  that  shall 
be  permanent." 

The  criticism  upon  Providence,  implied  in  the  word 
"perhaps"  at  the  end  of  the  third  paragraph  of  the  above, 
is  amusing.  That  slip  of  a  hurried  pen  has  been  quoted  to 
exhibit  General  Jackson  in  the  light  of  a  man  sitting  in  judg 
ment  upon  his  Creator,  "arraigning  Omnipotence  himself/' 
as  a  stump  orator  remarked  in  1828. 

The  address  was  soon  followed  by  the  action  it  indicated. 
Provisions  were  not  too  abundant  there  in  the  wilderness,  and 
supplies  were  brought  in  with  incredible  difficulty  and  toil. 
Jackson's  first  object  was  to  form  a  junction  with  the  south 
ern  army  at  the  confluence  of  the  Coosa  and  Tallapoosa, 
the  Holy  Ground  of  the  Creeks,  which  their  prophets  told 
them  no  white  man  could  tread  and  live.  He  had  been 
assured  by  General  Pinckney  that  as  soon  as  the  junction  of 
the  two  armies  was  effected  all  difficulty  with  regard  to  pro 
visions  would  be  at  an  end,  as  superabundant  supplies  had 
been  provided  by  the  general  government.  Moreover,  it  was 
on  this  Holy  Ground  that  the  only  body  of  Creeks  that  still 
maintained  a  hostile  attitude  were  assembled. 

For  five  days  the  troops  rested  from  their  labors  at  Fort 
William.  Then  they  set  out  on  their  march  through  the 
pathless  wilderness,  leaving  behind  wagons  and  baggage,  each 
man  carrying  eight  days'  provisions  upon  his  back.  Floods  of 
rain  converting  swamps  into  lakes,  rivulets  into  rivers,  creeks 
into  torrents,  retarded  their  progress,  and  gave  the  Indians 
time  to  disperse.  The  latter  days  of  April,  however,  found 
the  troops  on  the  Holy  Ground,  where  a  junction  with  part 
of  the  southern  army  was  effected. 

But  the  war  was  over      The  power  of  the  Creeks  was 

broken';  half  their  warriors  were  dead,  the  rest  were  scattered, 

and  subdued  in  spirit.      Fort   Mims  was   indeed  avenged. 

Jackson's  amazing  celerity  of  movement,  and  particularly  his 

VOL.  i. — 34 


526  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

last  daring  plunge  into  the  wilderness,  and  his  triumph  over 
obstacles  that  would  have  deterred  even  an  Indian  force, 
quite  baffled  and  confounded  the  unhappy  Creeks.  Against 
Biich  a  man  they  felt  it  vain  to  contend.  The  General  had 
no  sooner  reached  the  Holy  Ground  and  procured  for  his 
tired  and  hungry  men  the  supplies  they  needed,  than  the 
chiefs  began  to  come  into  his  camp  and  supplicate  for  peace. 
His  reply  to  them  was  brief  and  stern.  They  must  give 
proof,  he  said,  of  their  submission,  by  returning  to  the  north 
of  his  advanced  post — Fort  Williams.  There  they  Avould 
be  treated  with,  and  the  demands  of  the  government  made 
known  to  them.  But  first  they  must  bring  in  Weathersford, 
who  had  led  the  attack  on  Fort  Minis,  and  who  could  on  no 
conditions  be*  forgiven  the  part  he  had  taken  in  that  fearful 
massacre.  It  was  not  then  known  that  that  heroic  chief  had 
risked  his  own  life  in  attempting  to  save  the  women  and  chil 
dren  at  Fort  Mims.  The  whole  army  felt  their  revenge  in 
complete  while  he  lived. 

In  a  few  days  fourteen  of  the  leading  chiefs  had  given  in  their 
submission,  and  taken  up  their  sorrowful  march  toward  the 
designated  place.  Those  of  the  fallen  tribe  who  despaired  of 
making  terms,  and  those  whose  spirit  was  not  yet  completely 
crushed,  fled  into  Florida,  and  there  sowed  the  seed  of  future 
wars,  the  end  of  which  has  been  reached  while  these  pages 
are  still  under  the  writer's  hands.  (Billy  Bowlegs,  the 
Florida  chief,  and  his  disorderly  crew  of  savages,  passed 
through  New  Orleans,  on  their  way  to  the  West,  while  I 
was  writing  these  chapters  of  the  Creek  war,  in  the  summer 
of  1858.) 

It  was  not  only  the  power  of  the  Creeks  that  was  broken 
at  the  Horseshoe  Bend,  on  the  27th  of  March,  1814,  but  the 
power  of  the  red  man  in  North  America.  We  have  had  since 
that  day,  and  shall  have  for  many  years  to  come,  occasional 
encounters  with  Indians.  But  never  since  has  there  been  in 
arms  against  the  white  man  any  force  of  Indians  large  enough 
to  excite  any  thing  like  general  or  serious  apprehension,  or  to 
task  the  power  and  resources  of  the  United  States,  or  of  any 


1814]          SURRENDER     OF     WEATHERSFORD.  52? 

single  State,  and  there  never  will  be.  At  Tohopeka  the 
scepter  was  finally  snatched  from  the  red  man's  hands  ;  at 
Tohopeka  the  long  struggle  for  the  possession  of  the  western 
world  was  ended,  and  a  continent  changed  owners.  Te- 
cumseh.  and  Weathersford  were  the  last  Indian  chiefs  who 
looked  upon  white  men  with  sincere  scorn,  and  really  felt 
themselves  to  be  sovereigns  of  a  sovereign  race. 


CHAPTER    XLIX. 

THE  SURRENDER  OF  WEATHERSFORD. 

WEATHERSFORD  spared  his  brother  chiefs  the  hazard  of 
attempting  his  capture.  His  well-known  surrender  was  the 
most  striking  incident  of  the  war  of  1812.  Indeed,  I  know 
not  where,  in  ancient  legend  or  modern  history,  in  epic  poem 
or  tragic  drama,  to  find  a  scene  more  worthy  to  be  called  sub 
lime  than  that  which  now  occurred  between  this  great  chief  and 
the  conqueror  of  his  tribe.  And,  though  it  reads  more  like  a 
scene  in  one  of  our  Indian  plays  than  the  record  of  a  fact,  it 
has  the  advantage  of  being  perfectly  well  attested.  There 
are  gentlemen  still  living  in  Alabama,  who,  as  neighbors 
and  friends  of  Weathersford  had  learned  to  confide  in  his 
word,  who  heard  the  story  from  his  own  lips  ;  and  there  are 
many  in  Tennessee  and  elsewhere  who  heard  it  told  by  Gen 
eral  Jackson  and  by  members  of  his  military  family.  By 
uniting  what  is  recollected  of  Weathersford' s  statements*  with 
the  particulars  narrated  by  Jackson,  we  are  now  enabled  to 
obtain  a  complete  view  of  this  remarkable  transaction. 

Weathersford's  father  was  one  of  the  class  called,  in  the 
olden  time,  Indian-country  men,  that  is,  white  inhabitants 
of  the  Indian  country.  He  was  a  roving  trader  among  the 

*  In  Pickett's  History  of  Alabama. 


528  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

Creeks  j  married  an  Indian  "woman  of  the  fierce  Seminole 
tribe  ;  accumulated  property  ;  possessed,  at  length,  a  planta 
tion  and  negroes  ;  became  noted  as  a  breeder  of  fine  horses, 
and  won  prizes  on  the  Alabama  turf.  His  son  William  in 
herited  his  father's  property,  his  father's  love  of  horses,  his 
father's  thrift  and  strength  of  character  ;  but  he  drew  from 
his  Seminole  mother  something  of  the  fierceness  and  taciturn 
grandeur  of  demeanor  which  belonged  to  the  chiefs  of  her 
warlike  tribe.  He  identified  himself  at  all  times  with  the 
Indians  ;  his  tastes  and  pursuits  were  Indian  ;  he  gloried  in 
being  an  Indian  chief.  He  hunted  the  bear  with  the  passion 
and  skill  of  Tecumseh  and  David  Crockett,  and  retired  to 
his  plantation,  after  the  toils  of  the  chase,  to  enjoy,  as  it  is 
said,*  the  white  man's  unworthy  pleasures.  This  is  said  of 
him,  but  not,  as  far  as  I  can  discover,  by  any  one  personally 
cognizant  of  the  fact.  In  his  person  was  united  the  regu 
larity  of  features  of  the  white  man  with  the  tall,  straight, 
all-enduring  frame,  and  dusky  complexion  of  the  Indian. 
His  eyes  were  particularly  fine  and  piercing.  He  could  as 
sume  an  over-aweing  dignity  of  manner,  and  before  the  glance 
of  his  fiery  anger  few  men  could  stand.  The  white  men  who 
were  in  later  years  his  neighbors  and  associates,  represent  him  to 
have  been  a  man  of  honor  and  humanity.  They  looked  upon 
him  as  a  patriot  who  had  done  what  he  could  to  preserve  the 
independent  sovereignty  of  his  tribe,  and  whose  hands  were 
unstained  by  blood  dishonorably  shed. 

Long  had  he  lived  in  peace  with  the  whites,  the  most 
influential  of  the  Creek  chiefs  in  southern  Alabama,  when 
Tecumseh  came  from  the  North  to  stir  up  the  southern  tribes 
to  war.  Weathersford,  like  many  others  of  the  intelligent 
Creeks,  seems  to  have  perfectly  comprehended  the  situation 
of  the  tribe.  No  Indians  had  been  so  bountifully  cared  for 
as  the  Creeks  by  the  United  States  government,  and  no  tribe 
had  learned  so  much  of  the  white  man's  arts.  Weathergford 
was  far  from,  being  the  only  chief  who  lived  on  his  own  plan- 

*   Claiborne's  Notes  on  the  War  in  the  South. 


1814.]          SURRENDER    OF    WE  A  T  H  E  R  S  F  O  R  D  .  529 

tation  tilled  by  slaves,  and  in  his  own  tolerably-appointed 
house.  Plows,  spelling  books,  and  missionaries  had  been 
carrying  on  the  work  of  civilization  among  them  for  many 
years.  But  the  first  necessity  of  a  man  of  independent  mind 
is  independence.  There  was  a  secret  young  Creek  party  in 
the  tribe,  a  few  fiery  spirits,  of  whom  Weathersford  was  the 
animating  soul,  who  both  feared  and  resented  the  rapid  en 
croachments  of  the  settlers  upon  the  tribe's  ancient  seat. 
From  the  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  from  the  banks  of  the 
Mississippi,  from  the  borders  of  Georgia  and  Tennessee,  the 
white  man  was  drawing  nearer  and  nearer  the  home  of  the 
Creeks,  hemming  them  in  on  every  side,  "  turning,"  as  Te- 
cumseh  said,  "  their  beautiful  forests  into  large  fields,  and 
staining  their  clear  rivers  with  the  washings  of  the  soil/' 

On  his  first  visit  to  the  South,  Tecumseh  found  in  Weath 
ersford  a  sympathizing  friend,  but  not  an  adherent.  Weathers- 
ford  was  too  wise  a  man  for  that.  It  was  not  till  Tecumseh 
brought  from  the  North  the  news  of  the  American  disasters  at 
the  beginning  of  the  war  of  1812  ;  not  till  the  British  cruisers 
were  seen  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  ;  not  till  the  whole  power  of 
Britain  seemed  pledged  to  the  Indian  cause,  and  Spanish 
Florida  was  palpably  used  for  British  purposes,  that  Weath 
ersford  joined  heart,  hand,  and  fortune  with  Tecumseh,  and 
became  chief  of  the  war  party  in  southern  Alabama. 

His  masterly  investment  of  Fort  Mims,  so  secret  and  silent, 
his  gallant  dash  at  the  gate,  and  quick  capture  of  the  outer 
works,  showed  the  stuff  he  was  made  of.  So  did  his  efforts 
to  stay  the  horrible  slaughter  of  the  women  and  children. 
Having  exhausted  expostulation,  he  was  trying  to  stop  the 
massacre  by  force,  when  his  frenzied  crew  of  savages  lifted 
their  tomahawks  above  his  head,  and  he  strode  away  from  the 
scene  in  impotent  disgust. 

He  seems  to  have  expected  that  the  massacre  would  call 
forth  all  the  resources  of  the  surrounding  States,  for  we  find 
him,  during  the  succeeding  two  months,  engaged  in  forming 
a  portion  of  the  Holy  Ground  into  a  stronghold,  where  the 
women  and  children  were  assembled,  and  to  which  the  war- 


530  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

riors  returned  after  victory  or  defeat,  bringing  in  their  wounded, 
their  prisoners,  and  their  plunder.  With  a  thousand  men, 
General  Claiborne,  toward  the  close  of  December,  while 
Jackson  was  battling,  with  his  volunteers,  in  the  northern 
wilderness,  advanced  to  attack  Weathersford' s  position.  A 
short,  fierce  battle  ensued.  Weathersford  fought  with  despe 
rate  valor,  and  gained  some  brief  advantages  over  the  troops. 
But  the  Indians  would  not  stand  the  sustained  onset  of 
Claiborne's  regiments,  and  the  chief  saw  himself  abandoned 
when  but  thirty  of  his  band  of  Indians  and  negroes  had 
fallen.  Owing  to  the  excellence  of  the  position,  and  the 
wavering  of  Claibone's  cavalry,  all  the  rest  of  Weathersford' s 
force  escaped. 

Then  occurred  the  event  so  celebrated  in  our  border  annals 
known  as  "  Weathersford's  Leap."  He  was  the  last  to  leave 
the  fortified  enclosure.  The  women  arid  children  had  been 
removed  before  the  battle  began.  Even  the  wounded  had 
been  carried  -off.  Hard  pressed  by  his  pursuers,  who  saw  in 
him  the  murderer  of  their  friends  and  relations  at  Fort  Minis, 
Weathersford,  mounted  on  a  superb  gray  horse,  renowned  in 
the  settlements  for  its  strength  and  swiftness,  sought  the  high 
bluffs  of  the  Alabama,  and  rode  at  full  speed  along  their 
summit.  The  bluffs  there  range  from  eighty  to  a  hundred 
feet  above  the  water.  There  seemed  no  chance  of  escape. 
He  reached,  at  length,  a  break  in  the  bluff,  a  ravine  worn  by 
a  stream  of  water,  the  bottom  of  which  was  not  more  than 
fifteen  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  river.  Down  the  ravine 
he  compelled  his  foaming  horse,  and  spurred  him  headlong 
over  the  bluff  into  the  Alabama.  The  pursuers  saw  the  dar 
ing  leap,  saw  horse  and  rider  quite  disappear  in  the  stream, 
saw  the  animal  emerge,  and  then  the  chief,  holding  his  rifle  in 
one  hand  and  grasping  the  horse's  mane  with  the  other. 
Weathersford  instantly  regained  the  saddle,  and  the  horse 
struck  out  for  the  opposite  shore.  A  few  rifle  balls  flew  harm 
lessly  about  their  heads.  They  reached  the  bank  in  safety, 
and  in  a  moment  were  lost  to  view  in  the  forest. 

This  battle  did  not  discourage  the  Indians.     It  probably 


1814.  ]     SURRENDER  OF  WEATHERSFORD.    531 

had  a  contrary  effect ;  for  when,  a  month  later,  the  Georgia 
troops,  under  General  Floyd,  were  in  arms  against  the  sav 
ages  upon  the  Calabee  creek,  Weathersford  did  not  wait  to  be 
attacked,  but  rushed  upon  Floyd's  camp  before  the  dawn  of 
day,  drove  in  the  sentinels,  and  took  the  army  completely  by 
surprise.  All  but  a  victory  rewarded  his  gallantry  and  ad 
dress  on  this  occasion.  For  half  an  hour  the  Indians  kept  up 
a  most  vigorous  attack,  and  made  havoc  among  the  troops, 
without  receiving  the  slightest  check.  They  were  repulsed 
after  an  uncommonly  severe  engagement,  but  only  repulsed. 
They  still  hovered  in  the  immediate  vicinity,  and,  General 
Floyd  thinking  it  most  prudent  to  retreat,  the  Indians  slept 
the  next  night  upon  the  field  of  battle,  and  felt  themselves 
the  victors. 

But/  now  Jackson,  in  the  northern  part  of  the  Territory, 
had  recommenced  his  crushing  career  of  victory.  Blow  after 
blow  fell  upon  the  doomed  Creeks,  until  the  battle  of  the 
Horseshoe  annihilated  them  as  a  sovereign  power.  That  bold 
march  across  the  wilderness  brought  the  conqueror  to  the 
Holy  Ground  itself,  and,  at  his  approach,  the  force  under 
Weathersford  melted  away,  leaving  him  alone  in  the  forest 
with  a  multitude  of  women  and  children,  whom  the  war  had 
made  widows  and  orphans,  and  who  were  perishing  for  want 
of  food.  To  this  sad  extremity  had  Weathersford  and  young 
Creekism  brought  the  tribe. 

Then  it  was  that  he  gave  that  shining  example  of  human 
ity  and  heroism  that  ought  to  immortalize  his  name.  He 
might  have  fled  with  others  of  the  war  party  to  Florida, 
where  welcome  and  protection  awaited  him.  He  chose  to 
remain,  and  to  attempt  by  the  sacrifice  of  his  own  life  to  save 
from  imminent  starvation  the  women  and  children  whose 
natural  protectors  he  had  led  or  urged  to  their  death. 

Mounting  the  same  gray  steed  that  had  borne  him  safely 
across  the  Alabama,  he  directed  his  course  to  Jackson's  camp, 
in  the  peninsula  formed  by  the  confluence  of  the  Coosa  and 
Tallapoosa.  The  General  had  planted  his  colors  upon  the 
site  of  the  old  French  fort  Toulouse,  erected  by  Governor 


532  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

Bienville,  a  hundred  years  before.  The  French  trenches  were 
cleared  of  the  accumulated  rubbish  of  a  century,  a  stockade 
was  erected  in  the  American  manner,  and  the  place  named 
Fort  Jackson.  The  two  rivers  approach  at  that  point  to 
within  six  hundred  yards  of  each  other,  and  then  diverging, 
unite  four  miles  below. 

The  hunting  instinct  must  have  been  strong  indeed  in 
Weather sford,  for  when  he  was  only  a  few  miles  from  Fort 
Jackson,  a  fine  deer  crossing  his  path  and  stopping  within 
shooting  distance,  he  could  not  resist  the  temptation,  but 
shot  the  deer  and  placed  it  on  his  horse  behind  the  saddle. 
Reloading  his  rifle  with  two  balls,  for  the  purpose,  as  he 
afterwards  said,  of  shooting  the  Big  Warrior  (a  leading  chief 
of  the  peace  party)  if  he  should  give  him  any  cause,  he  pur 
sued  his  journey,  and  soon  reached  the  advanced  outposts  of 
the  American  camp.  With  the  politeness  natural  to  the 
brave  he  inquired  of  a  group  of  soldiers  where  General  Jack 
son  was.  They  gave  him  some  jesting  reply,  but  an  old  man 
standing  near  pointed  to  the  General's  tent,  and  the  fearless 
chief  rode  up  to  it.  Before  the  entrance  of  the  tent  sat  the 
Big  Warrior,  who,  on  seeing  Weathersford,  cried  out  in  an 
insulting  tone, 

"  Ah  !  Bill  Weathersford,  have  we  got  you  at  last  ?" 

With  a  glance  of  fire  at  the  insulter,  Weatherford  replied, 

"  You traitor  !  if  you  give  me   any  insolence,  I 

will  blow  a  ball  through  your  cowardly  heart !" 

General  Jackson  now  came  running  out  of  the  tent,  ac 
companied  by  Colonel  Hawkins,  the  agent  of  the  Creeks. 

"  How  dare  you,"  exclaimed  the  General,  in  a  furious 
manner,  "ride  up  to  my  tent  after  having  murdered  the 
women  and  children  at  Fort  Minis  ?" 

Weathersford's  reply,  according  to  his  own  recollection  of 
it,  was  as  follows  : 

"General  Jackson,  I  am  not  afraid  of  you.  I  fear  no 
man,  for  I  am  a  Creek  warrior.  I  have  nothing  to  request 
in  behalf  of  myself.  You  can  kill  me  if  you  desire.  But  I 
come  to  beg  you  to  send  for  the  women  and  children  of  the 


1814.]  SURRENDER    OF     WE  ATHERSFORD .  533 

war  party,  who  are  now  starving  in  the  woods.  Their  fields 
and  cribs  have  been  -destroyed  by  your  people,  who  have 
driven  them  to  the  woods  without  an  ear  of  corn.  I  hope 
that  you  will  send  out  parties,  who  will  conduct  them  safely 
here,  in  order  that  they  may  be  fed.  I  exerted  myself  in  vain 
to  prevent  the  massacre  of  the  women  and  children  at  Fort 
Mims.  I  am  now  done  fighting.  The  Eed  Sticks  are  nearly 
all  killed.  If  I  could  fight  you  any  longer,  I  would  most 
heartily  do  so.  Send  for  the  women  and  children.  They 
never  did  you  any  harm.  But  kill  me,  if  the  white  people 
want  it  done/' 

When  he  ceased  to  speak,  a  great  crowd  of  officers  and 
soldiers  had  gathered  round  the  tent.  Accustomed  now  for 
many  months  to  associate  the  name  of  Weathersford  with  the 
oft- told  horrors  of  the  massacre,  and  imperfectly  compre 
hending  what  was  going  forward,  the  troops  cast  upon  the 
chief  glances  of  hatred  and  aversion.  Many  of  them  cried  out, 

"  Kill  him  !  kill  him  !  kill  him  !" 

"  Silence,"  exclaimed  Jackson,  and  the  clamor  was  hushed. 

"  Any  man,"  added  the  General,  with  great  energy,  "  who 
would  kill  as  brave  a  man  as  this,  would  rob  the  dead  \" 

He  then  invited  Weathersford  to  alight  and  enter  his  tent, 
which  the  chief  did,  bringing  in  with  him  the  deer  he  had 
killed  on  the  way,  and  presenting  it  to  the  General.  Jack 
son  accepted  the  gift,  invited  Weathersford  to  drink  a  glass  of 
brandy,  and  entered  into  a  frank  and  friendly  conversation 
with  him.  The  remainder  of  the  interview  rests  upon  the 
authority  of  Major  Eaton,  who,  Mr.  Pickett  thinks,  based 
this  portion  of  his  narrative  "  entirely  upon  camp  gossip." 
Eaton  must  have  heard  the  story  many  times  from  Jackson 
himself,  and,  though  he  may  have  added  to  the  tale  a  slight 
presidential  campaign  flavor,  there  is  no  good  reason  to 
doubt  its  general  correctness. 

"  The  terms  upon  which  your  nation  can  be  saved,"  said 
the  General,  "  have  been  already  disclosed  :  in  that  way,  and 
none  other  can  you  obtain  safety.  If  you  wish  to  continue 
the  war,"  Jackson  added,  "  you  are  at  liberty  to  depart  un- 


534  LIFE     OF     ANDKEW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

harmed,  but  if  you  desire  peace,  you  may  remain,  and  you 
shall  be  protected." 

Weathersford  replied  that  he  desired  peace  in  order  that  his 
nation  might  be  relieved  of  their  sufferings,  and  the  women 
and  children  saved.  "  There  was  a  time,"  he  said,  "  when  I 
had  a  choice,  and  could  have  answered  you :  I  have  none 
now — even  hope  has  ended.  Once  I  could  animate  my  war 
riors  to  battle ;  but  I  can  not  animate  the  dead.  My  warriors 
can  no  longer  hear  my  voice  :  their  bones  are  at  Talladega, 
Tallushatchee,  Emuckfau,  and  Tohopeka.  I  have  not  sur 
rendered  myself  thoughtlessly.  Whilst  there  were  chances 
of  success,  I  never  left  my  post,  nor  supplicated  peace.  But 
my  people  are  gone,  and  I  now  ask  it  for  my  nation,  and  for 
myself.  On  the  miseries  and  misfortunes  brought  upon  my 
country,  I  look  back  with  deepest  sorrow,  and  wish  to  avert 
still  greater  calamities.  If  I  had  been  left  to  contend  with 
the  Georgia  army,  I  would  have  raised  my  com  on  one  bank 
of  the  river,  and  fought  them  on  the  other  ;  but  your  people 
have  destroyed  my  nation.  You  are  a  brave  man  :  I  rely 
upon  your  generosity.  You  will  exact  no  terms  of  a  con 
quered  people  but  such  as  they  should  accede  to  :  whatever 
they  may  be,  it  would  now  be  madness  and  folly  to  oppose. 
If  they  are  opposed,  you  shall  find  me  amongst  the  sternest 
enforcers  of  obedience.  Those  who  would  still  hold  out,  can 
be  influenced  only  by  a  mean  spirit  of  revenge  ;  and  to  this 
they  must  not,  and  shall  not  sacrifice  the  last  remnant  of 
their  country.  You  have  told  our  nation  where  we  might 
go,  and  be  safe.  This  is  good  talk,  and  they  ought  to  listen 
to  it.  They  shall  listen  to  it." 

The  interview  concluded.  For  a  short  time,  Weathersford 
remained  at  Fort  Jackson,  and  then  retired  to  his  plantation 
upon  Little  Kiver.  His  life  being  there  in  constant  danger 
from  the  relatives  of  those  who  had  perished  at  Fort  Minis, 
he  went  to  Fort  Claiborne,  the  commander  of  which  assigned 
him  a  tent  near  his  own,  and  stationed  a  guard  over  him, 
night  and  day.  He  was  still  unsafe,  for  large  numbers  of 
men  in  that  vicinity  had  vowed  his  destruction.  The  com- 


1814.]     SURRENDER  OF  WEATHERSFORD.      535 

mandant  "  now  resolved/'  says  Mr.  Piekett,  "  to  send  him 
beyond  the  lines  during  a  dark  night.  About  midnight,  he 
sent  his  aid,  followed  by  Weathersford,  to  the  station  of  Cap 
tain  Laval,  the  officer  on  guard.  He  said  :  '  Captain  La 
val,  the  commanding  officer  says  you  must  take  Weathers- 
ford  to  yonder  tree,  under  which  you  will  find  a  horse  tied, 
and  that  he  must  mount  the  horse  and  make  his  escape/ 

"  Captain  Laval  told  Weathersford  to  follow  him.  He 
passed  by  the  guard,  giving  the  countersign,  and  reached  the 
tree.  Weathersford  eagerly  seized  the  limb  to  which  the  horse 
was  tied,  threw  the  reins  over  the  animal's  head,  shook  Laval 
by  the  hand,  and  said,  in  earnest,  grateful  tones, 

"  '  Good-bye,  God  bless  you  !' 

"  He  then  vaulted  into  the  saddle,  and  rode  off  rapidly. 
That  was  the  last  time  he  ever  saw  Weathersford.  For  the 
distance  of  a  mile,  at  least,  Laval  heard  the  clattering  of  the 
horse's  feet." 

The  succor  which  Weathersford  had  thus  nobly  solicited 
for  the  women  and  children  of  the  war  party,  was  given  to 
nearly  all  the  remainder  of  the  tribe.  By  compelling  the 
Indians  to  remove  to  the  North,  Jackson  cut  them  off  from 
intercourse  with  Florida,  which  was  his  object,  but  he  also 
threw  them  upon  the  government  for  maintenance.  For  a 
considerable  part  of  the  summer  of  1814,  five  thousand  Indi 
ans  of  the  Creek  tribes  drew  rations  from  the  public  stores, 
but  for  which  large  numbers  must  have  perished  of  starvation. 

When  the  war  was  over,  Weathersford  again  became  a 
planter,  and  lived  many  years,  in  peace  with  white  men  and 
red,  upon  a  good  farm,  "well  supplied  with  negroes,"  in 
Monroe  county,  Alabama.  "  He  maintained,"  adds  the  histo 
rian  of  that  State,  "  an  excellent  character,  and  was  much 
respected  by  the  American  residents  for  his  bravery,  honor, 
and  strong  native  good  sense.  He  died  in  1826,  from  the 
fatigue  produced  by  a  '  desperate  bear-hunt/  " 

An  anecdote  of  Weathersford,  as  related  by  Mr.  Pickett, 
may  serve  as  an  illustration  of  border  life  in  the  early  day,  as 
well  as  of  the  character  of  this  magnificent  half-breed. 


536  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

"  In  1820,"  says  the  historian,  "  many  people  assembled 
at  the  sale  of  the  effects  of  the  deceased  Duncan  Henderson, 
in  the  lower  part  of  Monroe  county,  Alabama.  An  old  man, 
named  Bradbury,  the  father  of  the  gallant  lieutenant  who 
fought  at  Burnt  Corn,  and  who  was  afterwards  killed  in 
another  action,  was  murdered  on  this  occasion  by  one 

C r,*  who  plunged  a  long  knife  into  the  back  of  his  neck. 

The  murderer  had  an  accomplice,  one  F r,  who  was  in 

pursuit  of  Bradbury  at  the  same  time,  and  who  had,  a  few 
minutes  before,  broken  a  pitcher  over  his  head.  These  men 
were  so  desperate,  and  flourished  their  knives  with  such  defi 
ance,  that  Justice  Henderson  in  vain  called  upon  the  bystand 
ers  to  seize  them,  while  the  poor  unoffending  old  Bradbury 
lay  weltering  in  his  blood. 

"  Shocked  at  the  cowardly  and  brutal  act,  and  provoked 
at  the  timidity  of  the  bystanders,  William  Weathersford,  who 
lived  in  that  neighborhood,  now  advanced  toward  Henderson, 
and  said,  in  a  loud  voice, 

"  '  These,  I  suppose,  are  white  men's  laws.  You  stand 
aside  and  see  an  old  man  killed,  and  not  one  of  you  will 
avenge  his  blood.  If  he  had  one  drop  of  Indian  blood  mixed 
with  that  which  runs  upon  the  ground  there,  I  would  in 
stantly  kill  his  murderers,  at  the  risk  of  my  life/ 

"Justice  Henderson  implored  him  to  take  them,  and, 
being  assured  that  the  white  man's  law  would  not  hurt  him, 
but  that  he  would  be  commended  for  the  act,  Weathersford 
now  drew  forth  his  long,  silver-handled  butcher-knife,  and 
advanced  toward  the  murderers,  who  stood  forty  paces  off, 
threatening  to  kill  the  first  man  who  should  attempt  to  arrest 

them.  He  then  advanced  to  C r,  who,  trembling  at  his 

approach,  let  his  knife  drop  by  his  side,  and  instantly  surren 
dered.  Seizing  him  by  the  throat,  Weathersford  said  to  the 
bystanders,  i  Here,  tie  the  —  rascal !' 

*  The  reader  will  note  the  suppression  of  the  names  of  these  miscreants  by 
Mr.  Pickett,  and  draw  inferences  therefrom.  Mr.  Pickett's  work  was  published 
in  1851,  thirty-one  years  after  the  murder. 


1814.]  HONORS     TO     THE     VICTOR.  537 

"  Then,  going  up  to  F r,  upon  whom  he  flashed  his 

tiger  eyes,  he  also  arrested  him  without  the  least  opposition, 
F r  exclaiming, 

"  ( I  will  not  resist  you,  Billy  Weathersford/  " 


CHAPTER    L. 

HONORS     TO     THE    VICTOR. 

WITH  the  establishment  of  Fort  Jackson  in  the  Holy 
Ground,  at  the  confluence  of  the  two  rivers,  General  Jack 
son's  task  was  nearly  done.  For  a  few  days  he  was  busy 
enough  in  receiving  deputations  of  repentant  and  crest-fallen 
chiefs,  and  in  sending  out  strong  detachments  of  troops  to 
scour  the  country  in  search  of  hostile  parties,  if  any  such  still 
kept  the  field.  No  hostile  parties  were  found. 

The  friendly  Creeks,  however,  gave  some  trouble  by  their 
excess  of  zeal.  Attributing  the  calamities  brought  upon  their 
tribe  to  the  massacre  at  Fort  Mims,  they  were  bent  upon 
putting  to  death  every  man  who  had  taken  part  in  that  scene 
of  horrors.  Bodies  and  single  individuals  of  the  hostile  por 
tion  of  the  tribe  were  waylaid  and  killed  by  roving  compa 
nies  of  their  own  countrymen.  A  war  of  extermination  would 
have  ensued,  had  not  General  Jackson,  in  his  decisive  man 
ner,  announced  that  any  of  the  friendly  party  who  should 
molest  a  Ked  Stick  after  he  had  surrendered,  and  while  he  was 
obeying  the  orders  of  the  General,  should  be  treated  as  ene 
mies  of  the  United  States.  This  stayed  the  work  of  blood, 
and  the  Indians  continued  to  repair  to  the  northern  parts  of 
Alabama,  which  had  been  assigned  for  their  temporary  resi 
dence.  Fort  Jackson  completed  the  line  of  posts  which  sep 
arated  them  from  the  hostile  Indians,  the  hostile  British,  and 
the  sympathizing  Spaniards  of  Florida 


538  LIFE     OF      ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

That  it  was  no  despicable  enemy  against  whom  Jackson 
had  had  to  contend,  the  briefest  summary  of  their  achieve 
ments  shows  in  a  striking  manner.  The  historian  of  Ala 
bama,  Mr.  A.  J.  Pickett,  who,  residing  in  the  Creek  country, 
acquired  by  long  intercourse  with  the  actors  in  the  scenes 
that  have  been  narrated,  a  familiar  acquaintance  with  the 
character  of  the  Creeks,  bears  testimony  to  their  valor  and 
perseverance.  "  They  defeated  the  Americans,"  he  says,  "at 
Burnt  Corn,  and  compelled  them  to  make  a  precipitate  re 
treat.  They  reduced  Fort  Minis,  after  a  fight  of  five  hours, 
and  exterminated  its  numerous  inmates.  They  encountered 
the  large  force  under  Coffee,  at  Talluschatchee,  and  fought  till 
not  one  warrior  was  left,  disdaining  to  beg  for  quarter.  They 
opposed  Jackson  at  Talladega,  and,  although  surrounded  by 
his  army,  poured  out  their  fire,  and  fled  not  till  the  ground 
was  almost  covered  with  their  dead.  They  met  Floyd  at 
Autosse  and  fought  him  obstinately,  and  again  rallied  and 
attacked  him  a  few  hours  after  the  battle,  when  he  was  lead 
ing  his  army  over  Heydon's  hill.  Against  the  well-trained 
army  of  Claiborne  they  fought,  at  the  Holy  Ground,  with  the 
fury  of  tigers,  and  then  made  good  their  retreat  across  the 
Alabama.  At  Emuckfau,  three  times  did  they  charge  upon 
Jackson,  and  when  he  retreated  toward  the  Coosa  they  sprang 
upon  him,  while  crossing  the  creek  at  Enotochopco,  with  the 
courage  and  impetuosity  of  lions.  Two  days  afterward  a 
party  under  Weathersford  rushed  upon  the  unsuspecting 
Georgians  at  Calabee,  threw  the  army  into  dismay  and  con 
fusion,  and  stood  their  ground  in  a  severe  struggle  until  the 
superior  force  of  General  Floyd  forced  them  to  fly  at  day 
light.  Sixty  days  after  this,  Jackson  surrounded  them  at  the 
Horseshoe,  and  after  a  sanguinary  contest  totally  exterminated 
them,  while  not  one  of  them  begged  for  quarter.  At  length, 
wounded,  starved,  and  beaten,  hundreds  fled  to  the  swamps 
of  Florida  ;  others  went  to  Pensacola,  and  rallying  under 
Colonel  Nichol  attacked  Fort  Bowyer." 

"Thus,"  adds  the  same  author,  "were  the  brave  Creeks 
opposed  by  the  combined  armies  of  Georgia,  Tennessee,  and 


1814.]  HONORS     TO     THE     VICTOR.  539 

the  Mississippi  Territory,  together  with  the  federal  forces 
from  the  other  States,  besides  numerous  bands  of  bloody 
Choctaws  and  Chickasaws.  Fresh  volunteers  and  militia, 
from  month  to  month,  were  brought  against  them,  while  no 
one  came  to  their  assistance  save  a  few  English  officers  who 
led  them  to  undertake  enterprises  beyond  their  ability  to  ac 
complish.  And  how  long  did  they  contend  against  the  pow 
erful  forces  allied  against  them  ?  From  the  27th  of  July, 
1813,  to  the  last  of  December,  1814.  In  every  engagement 
with  the  Americans,  the  force  of  the  Creeks  was  greatly  in 
ferior  in  number,  except  at  Burnt  Corn  and  Fort  Mims. 

"  Brave  natives  of  Alabama  !"  exclaims  the  generous  his 
torian  ;  "  to  defend  that  soil  where  the  Great  Spirit  gave  you 
birth,  you  sacrificed  your  peaceful  savage  pursuits  !  You 
fought  the  invaders  until  more  than  half  your  warriors  were 
slain  !  The  remnant  of  your  warlike  tribe  yet  live  on  the 
distant  Arkansas.  You  have  been  forced  to  quit  one  of  the 
finest  regions  upon  the  earth,  which  is  now  occupied  by 
Americans.  Will  THEY,  in  some  dark  hour,  when  Alabama 
is  invaded,  defend  this  soil  as  bravely  and  as  enduringly  as 
you  have  done  ?  Posterity  may  be  able  to  reply." 

On  the  20th  of  April,  General  Thomas  Pinckney,  of 
South  Carolina,  a  major  general  of  the  regular  army,  reached 
Fort  Jackson,  and  assumed  the  chief  command.  This  was  a 
joyful  event  to  the  Tennesseeans  ;  for  it  gave  promise  of  their 
speedy  return  home.  The  venerable  soldier  of  the  Revolu 
tion,  who  had  seen  warm  service  in  both  wars,  and  had  fol 
lowed  the  career  of  General  Jackson  with  delight  and  pride, 
now  bestowed  upon  the  General  in  person  those  generous 
praises  which  he  had  before  communicated  to  the  government 
at  Washington.  It  was  a  time  of  festivity  throughout  the 
camp.  The  Carolina  troops,  under  General  Pinckney,  enter 
tained  the  Tennesseeans  with  soldierly  hospitality,  and  toasted 
their  gallantry  in  many  a  flowing  mug  of  regulation  whisky. 
General  Pinckney  gave  to  General  Jackson,  his  officers  and 
staff,  as  grand  a  banquet  in  his  own  marquee  as  could  be  ex 
temporized  in  circumstances  so  unfavorable  to  banqueting. 


540  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

The  day  following,  General  Jackson  entertained  General 
Pinckney  in  similar  style.  The  greatest  enthusiasm  pre 
vailed  on  both  occasions  ;  the  officers  of  the  regular  service 
uniting  with  those  of  the  militia  in  assigning  the  chief  glory 
of  the  campaign  to  General  Jackson,  who  now  tasted,  for  the 
first  time,  those  sweets  of  homage  and  adulation  which  were 
to  be  his  daily  food  thenceforth  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

The  last  banquet  over,  General  Pinckney,  at  three  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  of  April  21st,  issued  the  welcome  order  for 
the  return  homeward  of  General  Jackson's  army  ;  the  West 
Tennesseeans  to  be  disbanded  on  reaching  their  State  ;  the 
East  Tennesseeans,  who  had  some  weeks  longer  to  serve,  to 
garrison  the  posts  on  the  route.  An  order  of  this  nature  is 
one  which  soldiers  at  the  end  of  a  successful  campaign  obey 
with  alacrity.  By  five  o'clock  on  the  same  afternoon  the 
troops  were  on  the  march  !  Late  in  the  evening  of  the  third 
day  they  reached  Fort  William,  a  distance  of  sixty  miles 
through  the  wilderness  which  they  had  traversed  with  such 
difficulty  during  the  spring  floods.*  There  General  Jackson 

*  The  following  letter  from  General  Coffee  to  Captain  Donelson,  dated  Fort 
"William,  April  26th,  1814,  completes  the  series  of  the  General's  Creek  wai 
letters  :— 

"  On  the  7th  instant,  we  marched  from  this  place  for  the  junction  of  the  rivers 
Coosa  and  Tal-lapoosa,  commonly  called  the  Hickory  Ground.  "We  struck  the 
Tallapoosa  about  twelve  miles  above  the  forks  at  an  Indian  town  called  Hoithle- 
walla,  where  we  were  informed  the  enemy  had  concentrated  to  give  us  baitle. 
During  our  march  was  a  continued  fall  of  rain,  which  flooded  the  creeks,  and  very 
much  impeded  our  progress.  The  enemy  discovered  us  and  fled  in  all  directions. 
We  found  the  town  abandoned.  We  turned  down  to  the  forks  of  the  river,  burnt 
all  the  villages  in  our  reach,  but  not  an  enemy  could  be  found.  Flags  hourly 
came  in  begging  forgiveness  and  protection.  Some  of  them,  it  is  said,  had  fled 
towards  the  lower  Creek  country  or  Pensacola ;  the  whole  remaining  part  of  the 
nation  has  submitted  to  unconditional  terms  of  peace,  and  will  be  permitted  to 
settle  on  certain  tracts  of  the  country,  as  will  be  laid  out  for  them,  reserving  the 
most  valuable  parts  as  an  indemnity  for  the  expenses  of  the  war. 

"General  Pinckney,  with  the  army  of  the  two  Carolioas,  joined  us  at  the 
forks  |  and,  seeing  that  the  fighting  was  over,  the  Tennessee  army  is  permitted 
to  withdraw  from  the  service,  under  the  impression  that  the  country  is  completely 
conquered,  and  that  they  are  competent  to  keep  possession  thereof. 

"We  left  the  forks,  Fort  Jackson,  on  the  evening  of  the  21st,  and  arrived 


1814.]  HONORS     TO     THE     VICTOR.  541 

wrote  Ms  last  dispatch  to  Governor  Blount,  announcing  the 
end  of  the  war,  and  the  speedy  return  of  the  army.  There, 
too,  he  detached  the  troops  for  the  defense  of  the  posts. 

The  divisions  being  about  to  separate,  the  General,  ac 
cording  to  his  custom,  gave  them  a  parting  address  :  "Within 
a  few  days,"  said  he,  "  you  have  annihilated  the  power  of  a 
nation  that  for  twenty  years  has  been  the  disturber  of  your 
peace.  Your  vengeance  has  been  satisfied.  Wherever  these 
infuriated  allies  of  our  arch  enemy  assembled  for  battle,  you 
pursued  and  dispersed  them.  The  rapidity  of  your  move 
ments,  and  the  brilliancy  of  your  achievements,  have  corre 
sponded  with  the  valor  by  which  you  have  been  animated. 
The  bravery  you  have  displayed  on  the  field  of  battle,  and  the 
uniform  good  conduct  you  have  manifested  in  your  encamp 
ment,  and  on  your  line  of  march,  will  long  be  cherished  in  the 
memory  of  your  General,  and  will  not  be  forgotten  by  the 
country  which  you  have  so  materially  benefited." 

A  few  days  more  brought  the  troops  of  West  Tennessee 
to  Fayetteville,  where  they  had  rendezvoused  before  entering 
the  Indian  country,  and  where  now  they  were  honorably  dis 
missed,  with  the  renewed  thanks  and  commendations  of  their 
general.  Jackson  journeyed  homeward,  cheered  on  his  way  by 
every  manifestation  of  popular  approval.  "  We  have  again," 

here  last  evening.  The  army  will  take  up  the  line  of  march  from  this,  I  expect, 
on  the  morning  of  the  27th,  and  will  progress  as  fast  as  possible  until  it  reaches 
Fayetteville,  where  the  West  Tennesseeans  will  be  discharged.  A  detachment 
of  about  five  hundred  men  will  be  sent  from  here  to  scour  the  Cahaba  for  skulk 
ing  fellows  that  have  not  yet  come  in;  they  will  unite  with  us  again  at  Fort 
Deposit.  There  will  be  about  five  hundred  of  the  East  Tennesseeans  kept  in 
service  to  support  the  posts  we  have  established  on  this  river,  until  they  can  be 
relieved  by  regular  troops  to  be  raised. 

"  Thus  the  Creek  war  is  ended.  I  expect  Captain  Hammond's  company  of 
rangers  will  be  stationed  at  Fort  Deposit,  on  Tennessee  river,  to  support  that  post. 
I  expect  to  be  at  home  in  about  two  weeks.  Jockey  and  Captain  Smith  aro 
with  me.  We  are  all  in  good  health.  Our  horses  very  much  worn  down,  not 
having  any  forage  for  them  for  a  month  past ;  perhaps  we  may  get  them  homo, 
or  a  part  of  them.  I  don't  expect  to  have  any  opportunity  to  write  homo ;  will 
you  l>e  so  good  as  to  send  word  to  Polly  that  I  expect  to  be  at  home  shortly. 
Please  make  my  respects  to  Mrs.  Donelson  and  family." 
VOL.  I. 35 


542  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

said  the  Nashville  Whig  of  May  16th,  1814,  "  the  pleasure 
of  the  company  of  our  distinguished  fellow-citizen,  Major 
General  Andrew  Jackson,  who  arrived  in  this  town  on  Mon 
day  evening  last.  The  General  was  met  by  a  number  of  the 
citizens  of  this  place  the  day  before  his  arrival,  who  accom 
panied  him  to  within  about  four  miles  of  town,  when  he  was 
saluted  with  the  welcome  smiles  and  loud  huzzas  of  several 
hundred  of  his  fellow-citizens,  who  had  gone  out  to  meet  and 
honor  him.  From  thence  he  was  conducted  to  the  court 
house  in  this  town,  when  a  suitable  and  pathetic  address  was 
delivered  by  Mr.  Grundy,  in  behalf  of  the  committee  of  ar 
rangements,  and  also  by  the  students  of  Cumberland  College; 
after  which  he  was  conducted  to  the  '  Bell  Tavern/  and  par 
took  of  a  collation  prepared  for  the  occasion." 

The  General's  address  on  this  interesting  occasion  was  as 
follows : 

"  Gentlemen  :  The  favorable  sentiments  you  have  been  pleased  to  ex 
press,  by  authority  of  your  fellow-citizens,  of  the  brave  officers  and  soldiers 
who  composed  my  army  in  the  late  expedition  against  the  Creek  Indians, 
are  received  with  the  liveliest  sensibility. 

"  We  had  indeed  borne  with  many  outrages  from  that  barbarous  and 
infatuated  nation  before  the  massacre  at  Fort  Mims  raised  our  energies  to 
reVenge  the  wrongs  we  had  sustained.  I  participated  in  the  common  feel 
ing,  and  my  duty  to  my  country  impelled  me  to  take  the  field.  I  endeav 
ored  to  discharge  that  duty  faithfully :  my  best  exertions  were  used,  my 
best  judgment  exercised. 

"  In  the  prosecution  of  such  a  war  difficulties  and  privations  were  to  be 
expected.  To  meet  and  sustain  these  became  the  duty  of  every  officer  and 
soldier ;  and  for  the  faithful  performance  of  this  duty  they  are  amply  re 
warded  in  the  expression  of  their  country's  approbation. 

"  The  success  which  attended  our  exertions  has  indeed  been  very 
great.  We  have  laid  the  foundation  of  a  lasting  peace  to  those  frontiers 
which  had  been  so  long  and  so  often  infested  by  the  savages.  We  have 
conquered.  We  have  added  a  country  to  ours,  which,  by  connecting  the 
settlements  of  Georgia  with  those  of  the  Mississippi  Territory,  and  both  of 
them  with  our  own,  will  become  a  secure  barrier  against  foreign  invasion, 
or  the  operation  of  foreign  influence  over  our  red  neighbors  in  the  South  • 
and  we  have  furnished  the  means  not  only  of  defraying  the  expenses  of  the 
war  against  the  Creeks,  but  of  that  which  is  carrying  on  against  their  ally 
Great  Britain.  How  ardently,  therefore,  is  it  to  be  wished  that  govern 


1814.]  HONORS     TO     THE     VICTOR.  543 

ment  may  take  the   earliest  opportunity,  and  devise  the  most  effectual 
means,  of  populating  that  section  of  the  Union. 

u  In  acquiring  these  advantages  to  our  country  it  is  true  we  have  lost 
some  valuable  citizens,  some  brave  soldiers.  But  these  are  misfortunes 
inseparable  from  a  state  of  war ;  and  while  I  mingle  my  regret  with  yours 
for  the  loss,  I  have  this  consolation,  in  common  with  yourselves,  that  the 
sons  of  Tennessee  who  fell  contending  for  their  rights  have  approved  them 
selves  worthy  the  American  name — worthy  descendants  of  their  sires  of 
the  Revolution.' 


No  mock  modesty,  you  perceive,  gentle  reader.  He  had 
done  his  duty,  and  knew  that  he  had  done  it.  He  also  un 
derstood  in  part  the  value  of  what  he  had  gained  for  his 
country. 

The  old  enmities  seem  for  the  time  to  have  been  all  for 
gotten.  No  man  then  thought  of  the  dismal  scenes  of  the  last 
winter,  nor  of  the  bitterness  and  jealousies  which  at  one  time 
raged  between  the  two  divisions  of  the  State.  Eight  months 
before,  Jackson  had  left  his  home,  sick,  anxious,  with  many 
enemies,  and  little  known  beyond  the  limits  of  Tennessee. 
He  now  returned  victorious,  the  idol  of  the  State,  the  most 
popular  man  in  the  militia  of  the  borders,  and  with  a  consid 
erable  national  reputation.  The  closing  events  of  the  war 
had  attracted  very  general  attention.  The  National  Intelli 
gencer  published  General  Jackson's  later  dispatches  in  full, 
and  called  public  attention  to  them  in  editorial  paragraphs, 
especially  commending  their  modesty  and  vigor.  The  oppo 
sition  journals,  compelled  to  take  some  notice  of  these  events, 
were  careful  to  show  that  the  administration  had  no  part  nor 
lot  in  the  success  of  the  campaign. 

Jackson  had,  indeed,  deserved  well  of  his  country.  In 
doing  a  man's  part  in  the  defense  of  his  native  land,  which 
all  men  owe,  he  had  rendered  it  a  service,  the  full  extent  of 
which  no  one  yet  perceived.  Peace  reigned  throughout  the 
extensive  Mississippi  Territory,  before  uninhabitable  by  white 
men.  The  plan,  formed  by  Tecumseh  and  adopted  by  the 
British  generals,  of  uniting  all  the  western  Indians  in  a  cor 
don  of  blood  and  fire,  against  the  border  States,  in  aid  of  the 


544  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

grand  ministerial  scheme  of  "  shutting  up  the  Americans  in 
their  own  country/'  was  quite  frustrated.  So  much  was 
already  understood.  But  the  great  benefit  of  Jackson's  con 
quest  was  still  to  be  developed.  The  militia  of  the  border 
States,  freed  by  that  conquest  from  all  apprehension  for  the 
safety  of  their  oivn  homes,  could  now  be  concentrated  upon 
any  point,  however  remote,  that  might  be  menaced  by  the 
enemy !  The  Creek  war  made  the  campaign  of  New  Orleans 
possible.  It  was  this  crushing  of  the  Creek  power  in  their 
ancient  seat,  and  the  removal  of  the  remnant  of  the  tribe 
from  the  places  where  they  could  again  give  trouble,  that  pre 
pared  the  way  for  all  the  swiftly-succeeding  events  in  Jack 
son's  wonderful  military  career.  Who  could  have  gone  to 
the  defense  of  Mobile  and  New  Orleans,  saved  the  South-west 
from  temporary  conquest,  saved  the  banks  of  the  great  rivers 
from  terror  and  ravage,  if  the  Creeks  had  remained  hostile, 
or  powerful,  or  even  accessible  to  influence  from  without  ? 
A  thousand  hostile  Creeks  in  the  heart  of  the  Mississippi 
Territory  would  have  paralyzed  the  forces  of  Georgia,  Ten 
nessee,  Louisiana,  and  Mississippi.  Coming  events  in  the 
South-west  cast  but  dim  shadows  before,  in  the  early  summer 
of  1814 ;  but  President  Madison,  if  he  surveyed  the  scene 
which  he  was  appointed  to  overlook,  with  the  intelligent  eye 
that  ought  to  belong  to  a  President  of  the  United  States, 
must  have  drawn  a  long  breath  of  relief  when  the  news 
came  from  Fort  Jackson,  that  the  coasts  of  the  Grulf  of 
Mexico  had  thenceforth  to  be  guarded  only  against  an  enemy 
coming  from  the  sea  ! 

In  the  conduct  of  the  war,  though  it  afforded  few  oppor 
tunities  for  the  display  of  generalship,  in  the  European  sense 
of  the  word,  Jackson  exhibited  the  qualities  of  a  successful 
leader.  His  tremendous  ivill,  and  that  alone,  restored  the 
fortunes  of  the  campaign,  when  every  one  else  was  inclined  to 
despair.  His  ceaseless  activity  in  camp,  and  his  audacious 
celerity  of  movement,  both  before  and  after  victory,  were 
admirable.  He  acted  throughout  on  his  favorite  maxim,  be- 
before  quoted,  that,  in  war,  nothing  is  done  till  all  is  done. 


1814.]  HONORS     TO    THE     VICTOR.  545 

But  where  he  showed  original  power  of  character  was  in 
confronting  his  turbulent  volunteers.  Sham  democracy  is 
rebellion  ;  true  democracy  is  obedience.  At  that  period, 
when  it  was  accounted  the  first  of  honors  to  hold  office  under 
the  government,  officers  of  the  militia  were  prone  to  use  their 
military  commissions  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  their  po 
litical  designs.  Hence,  the  short-sighted  among  them  were 
more  in  the  habit  of  flattering  and  humoring  their  men  than 
of  compelling  them  to  do  their  duty.  Discipline,  on  the 
parade  ground  ridiculously  lax,  in  time  of  war  was  often 
fatally  so.  Jackson,  from  the  first,  set  his  face  resolutely 
against  all  this.  He  was  almost  a  martinet  in  enforcing  dis 
cipline,  and  believed  in  the  severe  punishments  of  the  olden 
time.  His  first  campaign  witnessed  a  military  execution,  and 
the  last  paper  he  ever  issued  as  a  military  officer  contains  a 
strong  plea  for  flogging  in  the  army.  We  of  the  present  day 
can  not  but  think  that  the  life  of  John  Woods  might  have 
been  spared,  and  we  indulge  the  dream  that,  from  the  hour 
the  army  of  the  United  States  is  governed  on  democratic 
principles,  every  man  serving  first  in  the  ranks,  and  rising  by 
merit  alone,  no  degrading  punishments  will  be  thought  of — 
still  less,  necessary.  Yet,  in  daring  to  cross  the  will  and 
oppose  the  intense  desire  of  his  rebellious  regiments,  and  in 
publishing  opinions  at  war  with  the  sentiment  of  the  age, 
Jackson  displayed  a  certain  courage  which  we  can,  in  some 
degree,  admire.  Upon  the  whole,  he  gave  striking  proof,  in 
the  Creek  war,  of  the  correctness  of  Burr's  opinion,  that  he 
was  a  man  who  would  do  credit  to  a  military  commission. 

The  administration,  however,  seemed  still  reluctant  to  do 
more  than  acknowledge  his  merit.  Mr.  Madison  may  have 
clung  to  the  prejudices  he  had  inherited  from  the  last  admin 
istration.  If  he  had  possessed  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  could 
have  seen  in  Jackson  the  destined  destroyer  of  his  dynasty,  he 
might  indeed  have  been  unwilling  to  bestow  national  recogni 
tion  upon  him.  A  petition  was  handed  about  the  House  of 
Representatives  by  the  western  members,  asking  a  commission 
in  the  regular  army  for  General  Jackson ;  and  it  appeared  from 


546  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

other  indications  that  such  an  appointment  would  be  received 
art  the  West  with  the  highest  favor.  Nor  was  the  government 
in  a  position  to  slight  any  means  of  restoring  its  waning  pop 
ularity.  The  darkest  days  of  the  war  were  near.  The  war 
was  a  war  of  the  Democratic  party  against  England,  in  aid 
of  the  "Armed  Soldier  of  Democracy;"  and  the  prospects 
of  the  party  changed  with  the  varying  fortunes  of  the  field. 
Victory  and  votes  might  have  been  the  secret  motto  of  the 
leaders. 

In  the  beginning  of  May,  1814,  a  few  days  after  the  news 
of  the  battle  of  the  Horseshoe  reached  Washington,  a  brig 
adier  generalship  fell  vacant,  which  the  President  was  induced 
to  offer  to  General  Jackson.  Before  it  was  known  whether 
the  offer  would  be  accepted,  the  unhappy  misunderstanding 
between  the  Secretary  of  War  and  General  William  Henry 
Harrison  resulted  in  the  resignation  of  that  brave  officer  and 
honest  gentleman.  Whether  it  was  the  haste  of  the  Secretary 
to  shelve  an  officer  disagreeable  to  him,  or  the  growing  eclat 
of  Jackson's  victories,  or  both  of  these  causes  together,  that 
induced  the  government  to  accept  the  resignation,  and  offer 
the  vacancy  to  Jackson,  is  a  matter  of  no  importance  now. 
The  thing  was  done.  Jackson  received  the  offer  of  the  brig- 
adiership  ;  and  while  he  was  considering  the  question  of  ac 
ceptance  or  rejection,  the  mail  of  the  day  following  brought 
him  the  second  offer,  which  he  accepted  promptly  and  gladly. 
It  was  a  reward  which  he  desired  and  felt  to  be  due  to 
his  standing  and  services.  The  National  Intelligencer  of 
May  31st,  1814,  contained  the  announcement  in  the  usual 
form  : — 

"Andrew  Jackson,  of  Tennessee,  is  appointed  Major 
General  in  the  army  of  the  United  States,  vice  William 
Henry  Harrison  resigned." 

The  emoluments  of  his  new  rank  were  of  importance  to 
General  Jackson,  for  he  was  by  no  means  a  rich  man  in  18 14. 
The  pay  of  a  major  general  in  the  army  of  the  United  States 
was  twenty-four  hundred  dollars  a  year  ;  with  allowances  for 
rations,  forage,  servants  and  transportation,  that  swelled  the 


HONORS     TO     THE     VICTOR.  547 

income  to  an  average  of  about  six  thousand  five  hundred  dol 
lars.  It  was  never  less  than  six  thousand  dollars. 

The  Legislature  of  Mississippi  Territory,  about  the  same 
time,  voted  General  Jackson  a  sword,  which  was  the  first  of 
the  many  similar  gifts  bestowed  upon  him  during  his  military 
career. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  in  view  of  succeeding  events,  that 
no  less  than  six  generals  had  stood  between  Jackson  and  the 
likelihood  of  his  being  entrusted  with  the  defense  of  the 
South-west.*  First,  General  Wilkinson  was  transferred  from 
New  Orleans  to  the  North-west,  where  his  failure  was  signal. 
Next,  Brigadier  General  Hampton  resigned.  Third,  Major 
General  William  Henry  Harrison  resigned.  Fourth,  General 
Flourney,  who  succeeded  Wilkinson  at  New  Orleans,  resigned. 
Fifth,  General  Howard,  of  Kentucky,  who  was  dispatched  to 
succeed  Flourney,  died  before  reaching  his  post.  Sixth,  Gen 
eral  Gaines,  sent  from  Washington  in  haste  when  the  first 
alarm  for  New  Orleans  was  felt  by  the  administration,  did 
not  arrive  till  all  was  over.  And  all  these  singular  and  un 
expected  changes  occurred  within  the  space  of  a  very  few 
months. 

The  effects  of  Jackson's  eight  months'  service  upon  his 
health  were  permanently  injurious.  In  reading  of  his  exploits, 
we  figure  to  ourselves  a  man  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  full  tide 
of  health.  How  different  was  the  fact  !  From  the  moment 
of  his  being  wounded  in  the  affray  with  the  Ben  tons,  to  the 
close  of  the  war,  he  was  so  much  an  invalid,  that  a  man  of 
less  strength  of  will  would  probably  have  yielded  to  the 
disease,  and  spent  his  days  in  nursing  it.  Chronic  diarrhoea 
was  the  form  which  his  complaint  assumed.  The  slightest 
imprudence  in  eating  or  drinking  brought  on  an  attack, 
during  which  he  suffered  intensely.  While  the  paroxysm 
lasted,  he  could  obtain  relief  only  by  sitting  on  a  chair  with 
his  chest  against  the  back  of  it,  and  his  arms  dangling  for 
ward.  In  this  position  he  was  sometimes  compelled  to 

*  History  of  War  of  1812,  by  C.  J.  Ingersoll,  iv.  86. 


548  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

remain  for  hours.  It  often  happened  that  he  was  seized 
with  the  familiar  pain  while  on  the  march  through  the 
woods  at  the  head  of  the  troops.  In  the  absence  of  other 
means  of  relief,  he  would  have  a  sapling  half  severed  and 
bent  over,  upon  which  he  would  hang  with  his  arms  down 
ward,  till  the  agony  subsided.  The  only  medicine  that  he 
took,  and  his  only  beverage  then,  was  weak  gin  and  water. 
The  reader  is,  therefore,  to  banish  from  his  imagination  the 
popular  figure  of  a  vigorous  warrior  galloping  in  the  pride  of 
his  strength  upon  a  fiery  charger  :  and  put  in  the  place  of  it, 
a  slight  attenuated  form,  a  yellowish,  wrinkled  face,  the  dark 
blue  eyes  of  which  were  the  only  feature  that  told  any  thing 
of  the  power  and  quality  of  the  man.  In  great  emergencies, 
it  is  true,  his  will  was  master,  compelling  his  impaired  body 
to  execute  all  its  resolves.  But  the  reaction  was  terrible 
sometimes  :  days  of  agony  and  prostration  following  an  hour 
of  anxiety  or  exertion.  He  gradually  learned,  in  some  degree, 
to  manage  and  control  his  disease.  But,  all  through  the  Creek 
war,  and  the  New  Orleans  campaign,  he  was  an  acute  sufferer, 
more  fit  for  a  sick  chamber  than  the  forest  bivouac  or  the  field 
of  battle.  There  were  times,  and  critical  times,  too,  when  it 
seemed  impossible  that  he  could  go  on.  But,  at  the  decisive 
moment,  he  always  rallied,  and  would  do  what  the  decisive 
moment  demanded.  I  believe  I  do  not  overstate  this  mat 
ter.  The  information  was  derived  from  gentlemen  who 
lived  with  the  General  in  the  closest  intimacy,  personal 
and  official. 

That  an  impaired  digestion  is  not  calculated  to  improve 
the  temper,  is  a  fact  which  must  be  perfectly  well  known  to 
a  people  who  occupy  brief,  but  busy,  portions  of  every  day  of 
their  lives  in  destroying  the  digestive  apparatus.  Jackson 
was  naturally  irascible,  as  we  have  seen,  and  in  later  years  he 
often  exhibited  extreme  irritability.  The  state  of  his  health 
must  not  be  forgotten  when  this  is  spoken  of.  And  if  ever 
he  attained  a  respectable  degree  of  self-control,  he  did  it  in 
spite  of  a  constitution  that  constantly  generated  tinder  for 
every  passing  spark  of  offense  to  fall  upon.  A  sound  stomach 


1814]  TREATY     OF     FORT      JACKSON.  549 

would  have  saved  him  from  saying  and  doing  many  things, 
the  faithful  narration  of  which  presents  him  neither  in  an 
amiable  nor  an  heroic  light. 


CHAPTER    LI. 

TREATY     OF     FORT     JACKSON. 

GENERAL  JACKSON  rested  from  his  labors  three  weeks. 
As  soon  as  his  acceptance  of  the  Major  Generalship  reached 
Washington  he  was  ordered  to  take  command  of  the  south 
ern  division  of  the  army,  if  division  it  could  be  called,  which 
consisted  of  three  half-filled  regiments.  He  was  ordered  to 
halt,  on  his  way  to  the  southern  coast,  long  enough  to  form 
a  definitive  treaty  with  the  Creeks,  or  rather  to  announce  to 
them  the  terms  upon  which  the  United  States  would  consent 
to  a  permanent  peace.  Colonel  Hawkins,  who  had  been  the 
agent  for  the  Creeks  since  the  days  of  General  Washington, 
was  associated  with  the  General  in  this  business.  On  the 
10th  of  July,  General  Jackson,  with  a  small  retinue,  reached 
the  Holy  Ground  once  more,  the  place  appointed  for  meet 
ing  the  chiefs  ;  where  he  assumed  the  command  of  the  troops, 
and  prepared  to  begin  the  negotiation. 

This  treaty  of  Fort  Jackson,  like  every  other  event  of 
Jackson's  career,  was  subjected  to  unrelenting  criticism  in 
later  years,  and  thus  a  flood  of  light  was  poured  upon  it 
which  revealed  many  particulars,  creditable  to  the  commis 
sioners,  that  might  otherwise  have  been  forgotten.  The  con 
ditions  imposed  upon  the  helpless  Creeks  were  apparently 
hard.  The  question  is,  whether  they  were  harder  than  the 
instructions  of  the  government  warranted,  and  the  necessities 
of  the  situation  required. 

The  instructions  from  the  Secretary  of  War  set  forth  that 


550  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

terms  were  to  be  dictated  to  the  Creeks,  as  to  a  conquered 
people.  The  commissioners  were  to  demand,  first,  an  Indem 
nification  for  the  expenses  incurred  by  the  United  States  in 
the  prosecution  of  the  war  by  such  a  cession  of  land  as  might 
be  deemed  an  equivalent ;  secondly,  a  Stipulation  on  the  part 
of  the  Creeks  that  they  would  cease  all  intercourse  with  any 
Spanish  garrison  or  town,  and  not  admit  among  them  any 
agent  or  trader  who  did  not  derive  his  authority  or  license 
from  the  United  States  ;  thirdly,  an  Acknowledgment  of  the 
right  of  the  United  States  to  open  roads  through  the  Creek 
territory,  and  to  establish  such  military  posts  and  trading 
houses  as  might  be  necessary  and  proper  ;  and,  lastly,  the 
Surrender  of  the  prophets  and  instigators  of  the  war. 

The  land  indemnity  was  obviously  the  difficulty  of  the 
negotiation.  The  prophets  and  instigators  of  the  war  were 
either  dead,  or  had  surrendered,  or  were  beyond  reach  in  the 
wilds  of  Florida.  The  stipulations  respecting  posts,  roads, 
traders,  and  Spaniards  were  not  objected  to.  But  the  land 
question  was  one  upon  which  it  was  impossible  the  two  par 
ties  should  entertain  the  same  opinion.  Jackson  demanded 
a  prodigious  cession  of  territory,  his  object  being  fourfold : 
first,  indemnity  ;  secondly,  to  remove  the  Indians  far  from  the 
borders  of  Tennessee,  Georgia,  and  Florida  ;  thirdly,  by  shut 
ting  up  the  Indians  in  a  compact  territory,  to  break  them  of 
their  roving  habits,  and  oblige  them  to  resort  more  and  more 
to  civilized  modes  of  gaining  subsistence  ;  fourthly,  to  have  an 
open  and  broad  road  from  western  Tennessee  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  In  short,  he  trimmed  the  edges  of  the  territory  they 
claimed,  so  as  to  leave  them  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
square  miles  of  land  furthest  from  the  settlements,  and  best 
adapted  to  their  habits.  The  description  of  the  original 
Creek  territory  in  the  old  books  is  vague,  and  refers  to  land 
marks  now  obliterated  ;  but  the  inference  is  fair,  and  proba 
bly  correct,  that  Jackson  demanded  a  surrender  of  a  large 
half  of  the  ancient  Creek  domain. 

One  of  the  clippings  comprised  a  great  part  of  what  is  now 
the  State  of  Alabama,  a  tract  of  land  which  was,  originally, 


1814.]  TREATY     OF     FORT     JACKSON.  551 

perhaps  the  most  productive  region  in  the  United  States,  and 
which,  to  this  day,  yields  a  larger  quantity  of  cotton  than 
any  other  of  the  same  extent.  The  commissioners  justified 
their  demand  on  the  grounds  that  one  half  the  tribe  having 
fallen  or  fled,  the  land  reserved  to  it  was  more  than  sufficient 
for  its  maintenance  ;  that  the  land  to  be  ceded  was  no  more 
than  a  just  indemnity  for  the  expenses  of  the  war,  which 
were  to  be  reckoned  by  millions  ;  that  this  land  would  soon, 
in  any  case,  be  overrun  by  the  advancing  tide  of  settlers  ;  that 
it  was  this  land  which  had  been  occupied  chiefly  by  the  hos 
tile  party,  and  was,  therefore,  justly  forfeited  ;  and  that  no 
less  a  surrender  of  territory  would  secure  the  main  object  of 
cuttino-  off  the  Indians  from  intercourse  with  the  Red  Sticks 

O 

and  Spaniards  of  Florida,  and  with  the  hostile  tribes  of  the 
North  and  North-west. 

An  outline  of  a  treaty,  in  accordance  with  these  princi 
ples,  was  promptly  submitted  by  the  commissioners  to  the 
council  of  chiefs  ;  an  engagement  being  added,  that,  in  con 
sideration  of  the  destitute  condition  of  the  tribe,  supplies 
would  be  furnished  by  the  United  States  until  the  maturity 
of  the  next  crop. 

In  negotiation,  the  Indian  is  a  slow,  artful  and  ceremoni 
ous  personage.  It  required  all  of  General  Jackson's  usual 
firmness,  and  much  more  than  his  usual  patience,  to  bring 
the  chiefs  to  the  point  on  this  occasion.  The  treaty  was  first 
debated  in  the  secret  council,  where  Jackson's  demands  pro 
duced  astonishment  and  consternation — astonishment,  because 
the  council  was  composed  of  friendly  chiefs,  who  felt  that  they 
deserved  reward,  not  punishment — consternation,  because 
they  thought  the  land  left  to  them  insufficient  for  the  main 
tenance  of  a  tribe  so  numerous.  The  voice  of  every  chief 
was  lifted  against  the  treaty,  and  the  council  asked  an  inter 
view  with  the  commissioners  to  remonstrate  against  it. 

A  scene  interesting  and  memorable  ensued.  On  one  side 
of  the  General's  spacious  marquee  were  ranged  the  Creek 
chiefs,  grave,  silent,  dignified,  and  wearing  all  the  fantastic 
insignia  of  their  authority.  On  the  other  were  General  Jack- 


552  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

son,  the  venerable  and  beloved  Colonel  Hawkins,  the  Gen 
eral's  aids,  officers  and  secretary,  and  Colonel  Hayne,  then 
the  recently  appointed  inspector  general  of  the  army,  now 
(1858)  representing  the  State  of  South  Carolina  in  the  Sen 
ate  of  the  United  States.  There  was  also  a  great  concourse 
of  Indians,  Creek  and  Cherokee,  and  part  of  a  regiment  of 
troops  on  the  ground,  all  interested  in  the  events  transpiring. 
Big  Warrior,  so  named  from  his  colossal  proportions,  a  chief 
renowned  among  both  races  for  his  eloquence,  who  had  never 
lifted  against  the  white  man  a  hostile  hand,  was  the  first  to 
express  the  feelings  of  the  council.  His  speech  made  a  deep 
impression  upon  all  who  heard  it ;  the  majestic  manner  of 
the  man  adding  force  to  his  words. 

He  told  the  story  of  the  war :  from  what  causes  it  had 
arisen  ;  what  sufferings  it  had  caused  ;  what  desolation  it 
had  left.  He  admitted  that  the  coming  of  Jackson's  army 
alone  had  saved  the  friendly  party  from  destruction,  and  that 
the  claim  of  the  government  for  indemnity  was  just.  They 
were  willing  to  transfer  a  portion  of  their  land.  But  was  not 
negotiation  to  that  end  premature  ?  Was  the  war  ended  ? 
The  war  party,  it  was  true,  had  fled  to  Florida,  but  they 
might  return  and  renew  the  strife.  The  Indians  required 
large  hunting  grounds  ;  for  their  habits  were  not  the  habits 
of  white  men,  who  staid  at  home  and  drew  all  their  subsist 
ence  from  the  soil.  To  give  up  so  much  land  as  the  treaty 
required,  would  reduce  the  tribe  to  the  greatest  distress; 
which  seemed  to  them  neither  just  nor  necessary. 

"  The  President,  our  father,"  concluded  the  great  chief, 
"advises  us  to  honesty  and  fairness,  and  promises  that  justice 
shall  be  done.  I  hope  and  trust  it  will  be  !  I  made  this  war, 
which  has  proved  so  fatal  to  my  country,  that  the  treaty  en 
tered  into  a  long  time  ago  with  father  Washington  might  not 
be  broken.  To  his  friendly  arm  I  hold  fast.  I  will  never 
break  that  chain  of  friendship  we  made  together,  and  which 
bound  us  to  stand  to  the  United  States.  He  was  a  father  to 
the  Muscoga  people ;  and  not  only  to  them,  but  to  all  the 
people  beneath  the  sun.  His  talk  I  now  hold  in  my  hand. 


1814.1  TREATY     OF     FORT     JACKSON.  553 


There  sits  the  agent  he  sent  among  us.  Never  has  he  broken 
the  treaty.  He  has  lived  with  us  a  long  time.  He  has  seen 
our  children  born,  who  now  have  children.  By  his  direction, 
cloth  was  wove,  and  clothes  were  made,  and  spread  through 
our  country  ;  but  the  Ked  Sticks  came  and  destroyed  all. 
We  have  none  now.  Hard  is  our  situation,  and  you  ought  to 
consider  it.  I  state  what  all  the  nation  knows  ;  nothing  will 
I  keep  secret. 

"  There  is  the  Little  Warrior,  whom  Colonel  Hawkins 
knows.  While  we  were  giving  satisfaction  for  the  murders 
that  had  been  committed,  he  proved  a  mischief-maker  ;  he 
went  to  the  British  on  the  lakes  ;  he  came  back  and  brought 
a  package  to  the  frontiers,  which  increased  the  murders  here. 
This  conduct  has  already  made  the  war  party  to  suffer  greatly; 
but,  although  almost  destroyed,  they  will  not  yet  open  their 
eyes,  but  are  still  led  away  by  the  British  at  Pensacola.  Not 
so  with  us.  We  were  rational,  and  had  our  senses — we  yet 
are  so.  In  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  our  father  beyond  the 
waters  encouraged  us  to  join  him,  and  we  did  so.  We  had 
no  sense  then.  The  promises  he  made  were  never  kept.  We 
were  young  and  foolish,  and  fought  with  him.  The  British 
can  no  more  persuade  us  to  do  wrong  :  they  have  deceived  us 
once,  and  can  deceive  us  no  more.  You  are  two  great  peoples. 
If  you  go  to  war,  we  will  have  no  concern  in  it ;  for  we  are 
not  able  to  fight.  We  wish  to  be  at  peace  with  every  nation. 
If  they  offer  me  arms,  I  will  say  to  them,  You  put  me  in 
danger,  to  war  against  a  people  born  in  our  own  land.  They 
shall  never  force  us  into  danger.  You  shall  never  see  that 
our  chiefs  are  boys  in  council,  who  will  be  forced  to  do  any 
thing.  I  talk  thus,  knowing  that  father  Washington  advised 
us  never  to  interfere  in  wars.  He  told  us  that  those  in  peace 
were  the  happiest  people.  He  told  us  that  if  the  enemy  at 
tacked  him,  he  had  warriors  enough,  and  did  not  wish  his  red 
children  to  help  him.  If  the  British  advise  us  to  any  thing, 
I  will  tell  you — not  hide  it  from  you.  If  they  say  we  must 
fight,  I  will  tell  them,  No  !" 

When  the  Big  Warrior  had  spoken,  Shelokta,  another 


554  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

friendly  chief,  addressed  the  commissioners  to  similar  effect. 
Shelokta  had  joined  Jackson's  forces  soon  after  hostilities 
commenced  ;  had  fought  all  through  the  war  under  the  Gen 
eral's  command,  and  stood  high  in  the  confidence  and  esteem 
of  the  army.  He  now  appealed  eloquently  to  the  feelings  of 
Jackson,  entreating  him  to  leave  the  tribe  in  possession  of 
the  fine  country  west  of  the  Coosa.  He  reminded  the  Gen 
eral  of  the  dangers  they  had  passed  together,  and  how  faith 
ful  he  had  been  to  the  white  men  in  the  most  trying  scenes. 

To  these  speeches  Jackson  replied  at  considerable  length. 
Moved  as  he  and  all  present  had  been  by  the  addresses  of  the 
two  chiefs,  he  still  felt  it  due  to  the  United  States  to  adhere 
to  his  demands.  "  You  know,"  said  he,  "  that  the  portion 
of  country  which  you  desire  to  retain  is  that  through  which 
the  intruders  and  mischief-makers  from  the  lakes  reached  you, 
and  urged  your  nation  to  those  acts  of  violence  that  have  in 
volved  your  people  in  wretchedness  and  your  country  in  ruin. 
Through  it  leads  the  path  Tecumseh  trod,  when  he  came  to 
visit  you.  That  path  must  be  stopped.  Until  this  is  done, 
your  nation  can  not  expect  happiness,  nor  mine  security.  I 
Lave  already  told  you  the  reasons  for  demanding  it.  They 
are  such  as  ought  not,  can  not  be  departed  from.  This  even 
ing  must  determine  whether  or  not  you  are  disposed  to  become 
friendly.  By  rejecting  the  treaty,  you  will  show  that  you  are 
enemies  of  the  United  States — enemies  even  to  yourselves. 
It  is  true  the  war  is  not  ended,  but  that  is  an  additional  rea 
son  why  the  cession  should  be  made  :  because  then  a  line  will 
be  drawn  by  which  my  soldiers  will  be  enabled  to  distinguish 
and  know  their  friends.  When  our  armies  came  here,  the 
hostile  party  had  even  stripped  you  of  your  country.  We  re 
took  it,  and  now  offer  to  restore  it ;  theirs  we  propose  to 
retain.  Those  who  are  disposed  to  give  effect  to  the  treaty, 
will  sign  it.  They  will  be  within  our  territory — will  be  pro 
tected  and  fed — and  no  enemy  of  theirs  or  ours  shall  molest 
them.  Those  who  are  opposed  to  it  shall  have  permission  to 
retire  to  Pensacola.  Here  is  the  paper  :  take  it,  and  show 
the  President  who  are  his  friends.  Consul t;  and  this  evening 


1814.]  TREATY    OF    FORT    JACKSON.  555 

let  me  know  who  will  assent  to  it,  and  who  will  not.  I  do 
not  wish,  nor  will  I  attempt  to  force  any  of  you — act  as  you 
think  proper." 

The  chiefs  withdrew,  and  proceeded  to  deliberate  again 
in  secret  council.  Another  cause  of  delay  arose.  Some 
Cherokee  chiefs,  who  were  present  at  the  treaty,  wished  to 
turn  the  calamity  of  the  Creeks  to  the  advantage  of  their 
own  tribe.  The  Creeks,  having  owned  more  land  than  they 
could  occupy,  had,  of  late  years,  permitted  the  Cherokees  to 
establish  settlements  on  the  Tennessee,  upon  lands  which 
were  about  to  be  surrendered.  The  Cherokees  now  besought 
the  Creek  chiefs  to  declare  that  this  land  really  belonged  to 
the  Cherokees,  thus  rendering  a  service  to  a  friendly  tribe 
without  cost  to  themselves.  After  discussion,  the  Creeks  re 
plied,  in  the  lofty  Indian  manner  : 

"  We  can  not  lie.     We  can  not  say  the  land  is  yours." 

This  matter  disposed  of,  nothing  remained  but  for  the 
Creeks  to  yield  to  the  hard  necessity  of  their  lot,  and  consent 
to  sign  the  treaty.  Before  signing,  however,  another  scene, 
more  curious  than  the  last,  occurred  between  the  chiefs  and 
the  American  officers — a  scene  which,  in  later  years,  was  made 
the  basis  of  attacks  both  upon  the  integrity  and  good  sense 
of  General  Jackson.  In  the  official  minutes  of  the  treaty, 
attested  by  Colonel  Hawkins,  and  afterwards  presented  to 
Congress,  I  find  the  following  account  of  this  singular  and 
interesting  affair.  On  the  morning  of  the  8th  of  August,  the 
chiefs  assembled  and  sent  a  messenger  to  request  General 
Jackson  and  Colonel  Hawkins  to  visit  them,  as  they  had 
something  particular  to  communicate.  On  the  arrival  of  the 
commissioners,  some  further  conversation  took  place  respect 
ing  boundaries,  after  which  one  of  the  chiefs  addressed  the 
General  as  follows  : — 

"  The  points  now  about  boundary  are  pretty  well  settled, 
and  we  shall  sign  it ;  but  before  we  do  it  and  yield  it  up,  we 
have  something  to  say  to  you.  We  are  a  poor  distressed  peo 
ple,  involved  in  ruin,  which  we  have  brought  on  ourselves. 
It  is  not  caused  by  a  foreign  people  among  us,  but  of  our  own 


556  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

color,  of  our  own  land,  and  who  speak  our  tongue.  They 
arose  against  us  to  destroy  us,  and  we  could  not  help  our 
selves.  We  called  on  three  brothers,  Cherokees,  Chickasaws, 
and  Choctaws,  to  help,  but  they  did  not  come.  We  then 
called  on  Colonel  Hawkins  for  our  white  friends  and  brothers 
to  help,  and  you  came.  You  have  seen  our  red  and  white 
brothers  mix  their  blood  in  battle.  You  have  risked  your 
life  for  us,  and  come  here,  and  here  we  meet.  You  have 
saved  my  life,  and  I  am  thankful  for  it.  We  have  put  our 
heads  together,  and  consulted  on  it,  and  have  come  to  one 
opinion  about  what  we  should  do.  We,  the  Creek  nation, 
give  you  three  miles  square  of  land,  to  be  chosen  where  you 
like,  from  what  we  are  going  to  give  up.  We  wish  you  to 
take  it  where  you  like,  and  as  near  us  as  you  can  ;  as,  if  we 
have  need  of  you,  you  will  be  near,  to  aid  and  advise  us.  We 
give  you  this  in  remembrance  of  the  important  services  you 
have  done  us,  and  as  a  token  of  the  gratitude  of  the  nation. 

"  There  is  a  man  near  you,  Colonel  Hawkins ;  the  same 
we  give  him,  three  miles  square.  He  has  been  long  among 
us,  helping  us,  and  doing  good  for  our  nation,  and  is  their 
friend.  He  and  I  met  at  Colerain  and  were  young  men,  and 
are  now  old.  His  children  are  born  in  our  land.  He  is  to 
select  the  land  we  give  where  he  chooses  in  the  land  we  are 
about  to  give  up,  and  to  sit  down  on  it,  and  if  he  dies  his 
children  will  have  a  place  to  live  on.  We  do  this  as  a  token 
of  the  gratitude  of  the  nation. 

"  There  is  standing  by  you  George  Mayfield,  a  white  man 
raised  in  our  land,  a  good  and  true  man,  an  interpreter.  We 
give  him  one  mile  square  of  land,  near  you,  that  you  may 
have  an  interpreter  at  hand  if  we  have  need  of  you  to  talk 
with  you. 

"  Here  is  an  old  interpreter,  thirty  years  in  our  service, 
Alexander  Cornells,  we  give  him  one  mile  square  of  land  to 
sit  down  on,  where  he  selects,  near  Colonel  Hawkins,  that  he 
may  continue  his  usefulness  to  us." 

To  this  address  General  Jackson  replied,  according  to  the 
official  report,  that  "  he  should  accept  of  this  national  mark 


1814.]  TREATY     OF     FORT     JACKSON.  557 

of  regard,  if  approved  of  by  the  President,  and  he  (the  Presi 
dent)  might,  if  he  would,  appropriate  its  value  to  aid  in 
clothing  their  naked  women  and  children.  He  was  well 
pleased  they  had  noticed  their  old  friend,  Colonel  Hawkins, 
and  his  children  born  among  them,  and  their  conduct  on  this 
head  towards  him  and  them  was  much  to  the  credit  of  the 
nation." 

Colonel  Hawkins  then  addressed  the  chiefs.  "  I  have 
been  long  among  you,"  said  he,  "  and  grown  gray  in  your 
service  ;  I  shall  not  much  longer  be  your  Agent.  You  all 
know  me,  that  when  applied  to  by  White,  Ked,  or  Black,  I 
looked  not  to  color,  but  to  the  justice  of  the  claim.  I  shall 
continue  to  be  faithful  and  useful  to  you  while  I  live,  and 
my  children  born  among  you  will  be  brought  up  to  do  the 
same.  I  accept  your  present,  and  I  esteem  it  the  more  highly 
by  the  manner  of  bestowing  it,  as  it  resulted  from  the  im 
pulse  of  your  own  minds,  and  not  from  any  intimation  from 
the  General  or  me." 

The  chiefs  retired  ;  but,  upon  conferring  together,  they 
were  not  quite  satisfied  with  General  Jackson's  reply,  and 
desired  to  explain  themselves  further.  In  the  official  narra 
tive  for  the  same  day  we  find  a  second  entry  as  follows  : — 
'"  Eight  o'clock,  P.  M.  This  evening  the  chiefs  expressed  to 
Colonel  Hawkins  :  (  They  did  not  give  to  General  Jackson 
the  land  to-day  to  give  it  back  to  them  in  clothing  and  other 
things  ;  they  want  him  to  live  on  it,  and  when  he  is  gone  his 
family  may  have  it ;  and  it  may  always  be  known  what  the 
nation  gave  it  to  him  for.  They  say  that,  in  the  instrument 
to  convey  their  intentions,  it  must  be  plainly  expressed  what 
are  the  towns  and  masters  of  the  land  ;  that  they  have  been 
uniformly  friendly  to  the  United  States,  and  faithful  to  their 
engagements  in  peace  and  in  war  ;  that  they  consider  the  ex 
tending  the  line  through  their  lands  in  the  Lower  Creeks  as 
taking  from  them  more  than  the  equivalent  offered,  and  they 
have  claims  which  should  be  attended  to  ;  but  as  the  Gen 
eral  has  no  powers  about  them,  they  will  sign  the  line  with 
him,  it  being  demanded  by  him,  and  advised  by  their  friend, 
VOL.  i. — 36 


558  LIFEOF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

Colonel  Hawkins.  Mrs.  Hawkins  must  be  put  in  with  her 
children,  as  she  had  much  trouble  to  teach  the  Indians  to 
spin  and  weave." 

On  the  day  following,  the  instrument  conveying  the  land 
was  drawn  up  by  an  interpreter,  signed  by  the  principal  chiefs, 
and  presented  to  General  Jackson,  who  received  and  preserved 
it.  This  instrument,  after  an  involved  preamble  claiming  a 
moral  right  to  the  lands  conveyed,  and  designating  the  Head 
Towns  of  the  Creek  nation,  proceeded  thus  : — 

"First.  Wishing  to  give  a  national  mark  of  gratitude  to  Major  Gen 
eral  Andrew  Jackson  for  his  distinguished  services  rendered  us  at  the 
head  of  the  army  from  Tennessee,  we  give  and  grant  him,  and  his  heirs 
for  ever,  three  miles  square  of  land,  at  such  place  as  he  may  select  out  of 
the  national  lands. 

"  Second.  Our  nation  feel  under  obligations  to  Colonel  Benjamin 
Hawkins,  our  agent,  and  to  Mrs.  Lavinia  Hawkins,  his  wife,  for  the  un 
wearied  pains  they  have  for  a  long  time  taken  to  introduce  the  plan  of 
civilization  among  us,  and  to  be  useful  to  us ;  and  as  their  children  are 
born  in  our  land,  we,  as  a  token  of  gratitude,  give  and  grant  to  Colonel 
Hawkins,  for  himself,  his  wife,  and  his  children,  three  miles  square  of  land, 
to  him  and  his  heirs  for  ever ;  to  be  located  in  such  part  of  the  national 
lands  as  Colonel  Hawkins  may  select,  in  one  tract  or  survey  of  one  mile 
square  each. 

"  Third.  We  give  to  George  Mayfield,  an  interpreter  with  General 
Jackson,  a  white  man  raised  in  our  land,  one  mile  square  of  land,  where 
he  may  select,  as  a  mark  of  our  respect  for  his  honesty  and  usefulness  to 
us  as  an  interpreter. 

"  Fourth.  We  give  and  grant  to  Alexander  Cornells,  a  half-breed,  an 
old  and  faithful  interpreter,  who  has  been  long  in  the  public  service,  one 
mile  square  of  land,  at  his  option,  to  be  located  by  him. 

"  We  finally  request,  that  the  government  of  the  United  States  will 
ratify  the  foregoing  acts  of  national  gratitude,  and  by  suitable  deeds  of  con 
veyance  to  enable  the  parties  to  receive  and  hold  the  said  lands,  agreeably 
to  our  intentions  as  herein  expressed." 

These  are  the  facts  respecting  the  famous  land-gift  to 
General  Jackson,  and  they  are  given  here  for  the  first  time  in 
a  work  accessible  to  the  public.  The  reader  can  now  judge 
them  for  himself.  It  was,  of  course,  made  a  great  point  of 
ridicule,  in  after  times,  that  General  Jackson  should  have 


1814.]  TREATY     OF     FOBT     JACKSON.  559 

accepted  lands  for  himself  on  the  9th  of  August,  which  he  re 
ceived  for  the  United  States  on  the  10th.  But  the  point  was 
not  fair ;  because  the  Indians  did  their  best,  in  their  rude 
way,  to  set  forth  in  the  instrument  of  conveyance,  that  they 
still  claimed  the  lands,  and  looked  to  the  United  States  to 
make  their  claim  good  at  some  future  day.  It  were  absurd 
to  deny,  however,  that  the  acceptance  of  such  a  grant  was 
an  error  of  judgment  on  the  part  of  the  negotiators  :  natural 
and  very  pardonable  in  the  circumstances  ;  but  still  an  error. 
There  is  no  nation,  I  presume,  civilized  or  barbarous,  that 
would  permit  men  sent  to  negotiate  a  treaty  to  receive  im 
portant  benefits  from  the  nation  to  which  they  were  accred 
ited.  The  thing  is  utterly  and  universally  inadmissible.  It 
would  be  opening  the  door  to  the  worst  corruption,  and  offer 
ing  a  reward  to  treason. 

The  subject  was  brought  before  Congress  in  1816,  when 
Jackson  was  at  the  zenith  of  the  greatest  popularity  enjoyed 
by  any  citizen  of  the  United  States  since  the  days  of  Gen 
eral  Washington.  President  Madison  called  attention  to  the 
matter  in  a  special  message.  "  Taking  into  consideration," 
said  the  President,  "  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  case — 
the  expediency  of  indulging  the  Indians  in  wishes  which  they 
associated  with  the  treaty  signed  by  them,  and  that  the  case 
involves  an  inviting  opportunity  of  bestowing  on  an  officer 
who  has  rendered  such  illustrious  services  to  his  country  a 
token  of  its  sensibility  to  them,  the  inducement  to  which  can 
not  be  diminished  by  the  delicacy  and  disinterestedness  of  his 
proposal  to  transfer  the  benefit  from  himself :  I  recommend 
to  Congress  that  provision  be  made  for  carrying  into  effect 
the  wishes  of  the  Indians." 

Congress  differed  from  the  President,  and  the  recom 
mendation  was  never  complied  with.  The  Senate  referred 
it  to  various  committees,  and  took  no  direct  action  upon 
it  of  any  kind.  In  the  House  it  was  referred  to  the  Com 
mittee  on  Public  Lands,  who  reported  that  it  was  "  inex 
pedient  to  ratify  the  donations  of  land  as  recommended." 
This  report  came  afterwards  before  the  Committee  of  the 


560  LIFE     OF     ANDBEW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

Whole,  by  whom  it  was  indefinitely  postponed,  and  never 
again  taken  up. 

On  the  10th  of  August,  1814,  after  a  delay  of  a  whole 
month  in  intrigue  and  negotiation,  the  treaty  of  Fort 
Jackson  was  signed.  Amid  the  stir  of  the  mighty  events 
of  that  period,  this  treaty,  so  unique,  so  important,  wholly 
escaped  public  observation.  In  1819,  Henry  Clay,  the  great 
politician  of  the  war,  confessed  that  he  had  only  recently 
become  acquainted  with  its  provisions.  It  made  noise  enough 
then,  however.  For  the  convenience  of  readers  who  would 
like  to  examine  this  most  peculiar  of  American  treaties,  it  is 
given  as  an  appendix  to  this  volume. 

The  chiefs  went  their  ways.  The  concourse  at  the  Holy 
Ground  dispersed.  A  strong  garrison  of  newly-raised  militia 
were  left  in  the  ancient  fort  to  overawe  the  Indians.  Unhappy 
garrison  !  We  shall  be  obliged  to  look  in  upon  them  some 
weeks  hence  to  see  how  they  endure  the  tedium  and  solitude 
of  that  most  sequestered  retreat.  A  few  days  after  the  sign 
ing  of  the  treaty,  General  Jackson,  with  his  staff  and  a  small 
escort,  continued  his  journey  toward  Mobile  and — immortal 
ity  ! 


CHAPTER      LII. 

THE     DAKK     DAYS     OF     THE     WAR. 

THE  Allies  in  Paris  !  Napoleon  fallen  !  The  images  of 
the  idol  smashed  by  the  populace  of  the  French  towns  ! 
The  Bourbons  to  be  restored  !  Peace  in  Europe  !  What 
news,  even  to  the  news-hardened  people  of  1814  ! 

A  thoughtful  and  humane  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
upon  reading  this  thrilling  intelligence  in  the  New  York 
papers  of  the  6th  of  June,  must  have  been  agitated  by 
contending  emotions.  As  a  friend  of  humanity,  he  could 


1814.]  THE     DARK     DAYS     OF     THE     WAR.  561 

not  have  been  insensible  to  what  Sydney  Smith,  in  the 
exultation  of  the  moment,  styled  "  the  stupendous  happi 
ness  of  getting  rid  of  Bonaparte  :"  a  man  who  had  brought 
the  art  of  tyranny  to  perfection,  and  whose  position  had  for 
some  years  been  so  inextricably  false,  that  his  continued  exist 
ence  as  a  European  power  could  be  nothing  but  destructive. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  fall  of  the  Destroyer  inflamed  the 
arrogance  and  released  the  resources  of  the  British  empire. 
That  wonderful  fleet  of  a  thousand  vessels,  those  victorious 
armies  of  the  Peninsula,  those  generals  who  had  learned  war 
in  contending  against  the  greatest  of  soldiers,  that  prodigious 
revenue  which  had  subsidized  a  continent  for  half  a  genera 
tion,  and  supported  the  most  tremendous  contest  ever  waged 
on  earth,  were  now  free  to  be  concentrated  upon  a  republic 
in  the  thirty-eighth  year  of  its  existence,  weakened  by  two 
years  of  war,  and  presenting  a  line  of  coast  that  invited 
attack  at  a  thousand  points.  Patriotism  and  philanthropy 
seemed,  for  once,  to  be  in  conflict. 

But  if  any  man  were  in  doubt  whether  he  ought  to 
rejoice  or  mourn  over  Napoleon's  ruin,  party  came  in  to 
solve  the  doubt.  The  Federalists  rejoiced  ostentatiously. 
They  held  meetings,  passed  resolutions,  consumed  dinners, 
drank  toasts,  hoisted  flags,  fired  cannons,  wrote  leading 
articles  and  preached  sermons  in  honor  of  the  great  event. 
The  Democrats,  of  course,  made  a  point  of  lamenting  the 
triumph  of  the  allied  sovereigns,  and  they  had  good  reason 
to  lament  it,  both  as  partisans  and  as  patriots.  Can  any  one 
doubt,  they  asked,  that  the  Federalists  are  monarchists  and 
traitors,  now  that  they  glory  in  the  success  of  their  country's 
foes,  and  hail  the  increased  peril  of  their  country  as  a  party 
triumph  ?  To  which  the  Federalists  replied,  that  they  did 
indeed  exult  in  the  fall  of  a  tyrant  and  scourge  of  the  human 
race,  and  the  more,  because  now  the  administration  would  be 
compelled  to  restore  peace  to  the  country  it  had  ruined;  for 
not  even  the  infatuation  of  a  Madison  and  an  Armstrong 
would  dare  to  attempt  a  struggle  with  the  undivided  power 
of  Napoleon's  conquerors. 


562  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

If  there  were  any  individuals  in  the  United  States  who 
desired  peace  more  ardently  than  any  others,  the  members  of 
the  administration  were  those  individuals;  "because  none  knew 
so  well  as  they  how  unfit  the  nation  was  to  cope  with  a  pow 
erful  enemy.  The  ablest  men  they  could  command,  Clay, 
Crawford,  Gallatin,  John  Quincy  Adams,  Bayard,  Kussell, 
were  all  in  Europe  in  various  capacities,  but  all  having  in 
view  the  one  overruling  object  of  obtaining,  if  not  an  honor 
able  peace,  the  least  dishonorable  one  that  would  not  involve 
the  ruin  of  the  party  making  it.  The  tidings  of  Napoleon's 
downfall  reached  Clay  at  Gottenburg,  Crawford  at  Paris, 
Bayard  at  Leyden,  Gallatin  at  London,  Kussell  at  Stock 
holm;  and  all  having  access  to  sources  of  intelligence,  united 
in  the  opinion  that  the  events  at  Paris  had  rendered  an 
American  peace  one  of  the  most  improbable  of  events. 

A  letter  written  on  the  22d  of  April,  by  Albert  Gallatin 
to  Henry  Clay,  explains  the  posture  of  affairs  with  the  clear 
intelligence  that  marks  Mr.  Galla tin's  writings  : — 

"You  are  sufficiently  aware,"  he  wrote,  "of  the  total  change  in  our 
affairs  produced  by  the  late  revolution,  and  by  the  restoration  of  universal 
peace  in  the  European  world,  from  which  we  are  alone  excluded.  A  well 
organized  and  large  army  is  at  once  liberated  from  any  European  employ 
ment,  and  ready,  together  with  a  superabundant  naval  force,  to  act  imme 
diately  against  us.  How  ill  prepared  we  are  to  meet  it  in  a  proper  man 
ner  no  one  knows  better  than  yourself;  but,  above  all,  our  own  divisions 
and  the  hostile  attitude  of  the  eastern  States  give  room  to  apprehend  that 
a  continuance  of  the  war  might  prove  vitally  fatal  to  the  United  States.  I 
understand  that  the  ministers,  with  whom  we  have  not  had  any  direct  inter 
course,  still  profess  to  be  disposed  to  make  an  equitable  peace.  But  the 
hope  not  of  ultimate  conquest,  but  of  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  the  con 
venient  pretense  which  the  American  war  will  afford  to  preserve  large 
military  establishments,  and  above  all,  the  force  of  popular  feeling,  may  all 
unite  in  inducing  the  cabinet  in  throwing  impediments  in  the  way  of  peace. 
They  will  not  certainly  be  disposed  to  make  concessions,  nor  probably  dis 
pleased  at  a  failure  of  negotiations.  That  the  war  is  popular,  and  that 
national  pride,  inflated  by  the  last  unexpected  success,  can  not  be  satisfied 
without  what  they  call  the  chastisement  of  America,  can  not  be  doubted. 
The  mass  of  the  people  here  know  nothing  of  American  politics  but  through 
the  medium  of  Federal  speeches  and  newspapers,  faithfully  transcribed  in 


1814.]  THE     DARK     DAYS     OF     THE   WAR.  563 

their  own  journals.  They  do  not  even  suspect  that  we  have  any  just  cause 
of  complaint,  and  consider  us  altogether  the  aggressors,  and  as  allies  of  Bona 
parte.  In  these  opinions  it  is  understood  that  the  ministers  do  not  partici 
pate  ;  but  it  will  really  require  an  effort  on  their  part  to  act  contrary  to- 
public  opinion ;  and  they  must,  even  if  perfectly  sincere,  use  great  caution 
and  run  some  risk  of  popularity." 

The  American  war  was  indeed  popular  in  England,  and  it 
soon  appeared  that  the  ministry,  whatever  their  private  opin 
ions  may  have  been,  were  disposed  to  foment  and  flatter  the 
popular  humor.  Among  the  shows  exhibited  in  Hyde  Park 
during  the  public  rejoicings  at  the  peace  was  a  sham  fight 
between  an  American  and  an  English  fleet,  in  which,  of 
course,  the  American  fleet  suffered  a  most  ignominious  de 
feat.  Among  the  crowd  of  spectators  who  saw  the  show  were 
officers  who,  a  very  few  months  later,  fell  under  that  fright 
ful  blaze  of  American  rifles  at  the  battle  of  New  Orleans. 
Let  us  add,  that  at  least  one  of  those  brave  men  felt  the  ill 
taste  and  bad  morality  of  the  exhibition.*  The  English  press, 
from  the  Quarterly  Review  to  the  evening  papers,  teemed 
with  the  most  irritating  and  scurrilous  abuse  of  the  Amer 
ican  people  during  this  summer  of  intoxication.  For  one 
specimen  paragraph,  from  the  London  Sun  of  September  3d, 
1814,  room  may  be  afforded  here,  in  illustration  of  Mr.  Gal- 
latin's  letter  : — 

*  Captain  John  Henry  Cooke,  in  his  Narrative  of  the  Attack  on  New  Orleans, 
says :  "  I  saw  the  last  of  the  grand  illuminations.  It  was  strange  enough,  that, 
having  arrived  in  London  only  the  night  before,  and  going  to  see  the  sham  attack 
made  on  the  American  fleet,  got  up  in  miniature  for  the  occasion,  on  the  Serpen 
tine  river  in  Hyde  Park,  I  buttoned  an  olive  pelisse  coat  over  the  very  uniform 
which  I  afterwards  wore  at  New  Orleans. 

"  This  sham  fighting  did  not  savor  of  good  taste,  because  at  that  time  peace 
was  anxiously  looked  for  in  that  quarter  of  the  globe  ;  and  many  of  these  scenes 
acted  during  the  delirium  of  the  moment,  fell  to  a  great  discount  when  the  senses 
of  Englishmen  recovered  their  equilibrium,  and  they  found  that  they  did  not  pos 
sess  Aladdin's  lamp. 

"  In  addition  to  which  it  may  be  remarked,  that  a  sham  fight  is  as  unlike 
a  real  one  as  the  two  most  opposite  things  in  nature.  In  this  instance  the 
show  was  exceedingly  mal-d-apropos,  and  any  thing  but  prophetic;  for,  al 
though  the  wild  bonnet  rouge  had  been  laid  low,  yet  the  broad  brim  retained 
its  steadiness." 


564  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

"  The  American  armies,  of  copper  captains  and  Falstaff  recruits,  defy 
the  pen  of  satire  to  paint  them  worse  than  they  are — worthless,  lying> 
treacherous,  false,  slanderous,  cowardly,  and  vaporing  heroes,  with  boasting 
on  their  loud  tongues,  and  terror  in  their  quaking  hearts.  Were  it  not 
that  the  course  of  punishment  they  are  undergoing  is  necessary  to  the 
ends  of  moral  and  political  justice,  we  declare  before  our  countiy  that  we 
should  feel  ashamed  of  victory  over  such  ignoble  foes.  The  quarrel  resem 
bles  one  between  a  gentleman  and  a  chimney-sweeper ; — the  former  may 
beat  the  low  scoundrel  to  his  heart's  contentment ;  but  there  is  no  honor  in 
the  exploit,  and  he  is  sure  to  be  covered  with  the  soil  and  dirt  of  his  igno 
minious  antagonist.  But  necessity  will  sometimes  compel  us  to  descend 
from  our  station  to  chastise  a  vagabond,  and  endure  the  disgrace  of  a  con 
test  in  order  to  repress,  by  wholesome  correction,  the  presumptuous  inso 
lence  and  mischievous  designs  of  the  basest  assailant." 

The  Times  also  spoke  of  President  Madison  as  "  this  fel 
low,"  "  notorious  for  lying,  for  imposture  of  all  kinds,  for  his 
barbarous  warfare  both  in  Canada  and  against  the  Creek  In 
dians  ;  for  every  thing,  in  short,  that  can  debase  and  degrade 
a  government."  Again,  on  the  2d  of  July,  while  discoursing 
on  the  American  naval  victories,  which  were  delicately  styled 
the  "  late  painful  events  on  the  sea,"  the  Times,  which  always 
flattered  the  fighting  propensities  of  the  British  bull-dog,  held 
the  following  magnanimous  language :  "  There  is  but  one 
way  to  turn  the  current  of  the  Americans'  thoughts  and 
efforts  from  their  present  direction,  and  that  is  to  crush  their 
growing  navy  to  atoms!  The  enterprise  may  be  twice  as 
difficult  now  as  it  would  have  been  had  our  means  then  per 
mitted,  in  the  first  month  of  the  war  ;  but  it  will  infallibly 
be  ten  times  as  difficult,  nay,  it  may  become  absolutely  im 
possible  if  it  is  delayed  till  a  future  war.  Now  America 
stands  alone,  hereafter  she  may  have  allies.  Let  us  strike 
while  the  iron  is  hot !" 

Such  was  the  temper  of  John  Bull  in  the  first  flush  of  the 
great  triumphs  of  1814.  Indeed,  there  was  acrimony  enough 
on  both  sides,  which,  on  the  part  of  the  Americans,  increased 
as  the  season  advanced.  An  incident  related  by  Judge 
Brackenridge,  in  his  excellent  History  of  the  War,  exhibits 
the  angry  feeling  of  both  nations : — 


1814.]  THE     DARK     DAYS     OF     THE     WAR.  565 

"  Twenty-three  American  soldiers,  taken  at  the  battle  of  Queenstown 
in  the  autumn  of  1812,  were  detained  m  close  confinement  on  the  charge 
of  being  native-born  British  subjects,  and  afterwards  sent  to  England  to 
undergo  a  trial  for  treason.  On  this  being  made  known  to  our  govern 
ment,  orders  were  given  to  General  Dearborn  to  confine  a  like  number  of 
British  prisoners  taken  at  Fort  George,  and  to  keep  them  as  hostages  for 
the  safety  of  the  Americans ;  instructions  which  were  carried  into  effect, 
and  soon  after  made  known  to  the  Governor  of  Canada.  The  British  gov 
ernment  was  no  sooner  informed  of  this,  than  Governor  Prevost  was  or 
dered  to  place  forty-six  American  commissioned  and  non-commissioned 
officers  in  confinement.  Governor  Prevost,  in  his  letter  to  General  Wil 
kinson  upon  this  subject,  stated,  that  he  had  been  directed  to  apprise  him, 
that  if  any  of  the  British  prisoners  should  suffer  death,  in  consequence  of 
the  twenty-three  American  soldiers  above  mentioned  being  found  guilty 
and  the  known  law  of  Great  Britain  and  of  every  other  country  in  similar 
circumstances  being  executed  on  them,  double  the  number  of  American 
officers  should  suffer  instant  death  :  he  further  notified  the  general,  for  the 
information  of  his  government,  that  orders  had  been  given  to  the  British 
commanders  to  prosecute  the  war  with  unrelenting  severity,  if,  unhappily, 
after  this  notice,  the  American  government  should  not  be  deterred  from 

putting  to  death  the  British  soldiers  now  in  confinement The 

arrogance  and  haughtiness  of  the  British  officer  in  holding  this  language, 
so  far  from  intimidating  a  people  who  are  proud  of  their  independence  and 
jealous  of  their  national  honor,  was  only  calculated  to  render  resistance 
more  obstinate ;  and  justly  excited  the  indignation  of  every  American. 
General  Wilkinson  soon  after  informed  Governor  Prevost,  that,  in  conse 
quence  of  orders  he  had  received  from  his  government,  he  had  put  forty- 
six  British  officers  in  confinement,  to  be  there  detained  until  it  should  be 
known  that  the  American  officers  were  released.  On  the  receipt  of  this 
intelligence,  the  Canadian  governor  ordered  all  the  American  prisoners 
into  close  confinement;  and  a  similar  step  was  soon  after  taken  by  our 
government." 

Elias  Darnell,  an  American  militiaman  under  General 
Winchester,  says  in  his  narrative  : — "  Six  of  us  stopped  at  a 
Major  Boon's  (a  Canadian),  and  asked  him  'if  we  might  stay 
all  night/  He  said  we  could.  His  father,  who  lived  with 
him,  let  us  know  he  had  "been  a  tory  major  in  the  American 
Kevolution.  He  said  '  he  had  lived  in  the  Jerseys,  and  had 
one  of  Lord  Howe's  commissions  in  the  house  then,  and  was 
a  half-pay  officer/  He  said  i  the  Americans  would  have  no 
possible  chance  to  take  Canada,  for  the  British  next  spring 


566  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON. 

would  bring  seventy  thousand  Indians  from  the  North-west, 
and  as  many  negroes  from  St.  Domingo,  besides  three  hun 
dred  thousand  Turks  !'  Said  James  Allen,  '  I  suppose  you 
will  set  dogs  on  us  next!'  "* 

The  British  ministry  acted  promptly,  in  accordance  with 
the  national  humor.  The  same  ship  that  conveyed  to  New 
York  the  news  of  Napoleon's  ruin,  brought  a  letter  from  the 
watchful  and  sagacious  Albert  Gallatin  to  the  President,  giv 
ing  him  information  derived  from  secret  sources  in  London, 
that  the  most  prodigious  and  overwhelming  efforts  against 
America  had  been  resolved  upon.  He  knew  not  where  the  first 
blow  was  to  fall.  He  gave  no  hint,  for  he  had  none  to  give,  of 
the  intended  conquest  of  the  South-west.  He  knew  only  that 
great  fleets  were  equipping,  that  many  of  the  finest  regiments 
in  the  service  were  preparing  to  embark,  that  simultaneous 
operations  in  many  directions  were  contemplated,  and  that 
every  sea-port  on  the  Atlantic  coast  was  in  danger.  This  warn 
ing  letter  arrived  none  too  soon.  When  President  Madison  read 
it,  on  the  12th  of  June,  the  expedition  that  in  August  was  to 
lay  in  smoking  ruins  the  city  of  Washington,  was  already 
eight  days  on  its  voyage  from  Bordeaux  to  the  Chesapeake. 

The  well-known  words  attributed  to  Lord  Castlereagh, 
upon  the  arrival  at  Paris  of  the  news  of  the  capture  of  Wash 
ington,  are  not  likely  to  have  been  uttered  by  a  diplomatist, 
or,  if  uttered,  to  have  been  reported  ;  but  they  express  both 
the  intentions  and  the  expectations  of  the  British  govern 
ment.  According  to  the  newspaper  version  of  the  story, 
Castlereagh  said  to  the  King  of  France,  who  had  uttered 
doubts  respecting  the  truth  of  the  intelligence  : — "  Sire,  it  is 
true,  beyond  all  question  ;  and  I  expect  that  at  this  time 
(about  October  15th)  most  of  the  large  sea-port  towns  in 
America  are  laid  in  ashes — that  we  are  in  possession  of  New 
Orleans,  and  have  command  of  all  the  waters  of  the  Missis 
sippi  and  the  lakes  ;  so  that  the  Americans  are  now  little 
better  than  prisoners  at  large  in  their  own  country." 

*  Journal  of  Elias  Darnell,  page  ?2. 


1814.]         THE     DARK     DAYS     OF     THE     WAR.  567 

These  being  the  designs  of  Great  Britain,  in  what  condi 
tion  were  the  United  States  to  resist  them  ? 

The  country  was  carrying  on  war  without  the  hearty 
concurrence  of  its  brain  and  conscience.  New  England, 
that  had  led  the  Kevolution,  could  never  overcome  her 
repugnance  to  this  war.  The  INSTINCTS  of  the  country, 
which  reside  chiefly  in  the  West  and  South,  declared  and  sus 
tained  the  war  of  1812.  No  wonder,  then,  that  it  was  a  war 
of  blunders  and  disasters,  relieved  by  victories,  brilliant,  flat 
tering,  and  unimportant.  The  deep  discontent  of  New  En 
gland  was  about  to  issue  in  the  Hartford  Convention  ;  a  most 
innocent  and  patriotic  convention,  it  is  true,  but  one  of  those 
cautious  feelers  which  a  virtuous  and  thoughtful  people  put 
forth  when  they  begin  to  foresee  a  necessity  of  a  change  in  the 
basis  of  their  affairs.  If  events  had  gone  wrong  in  the  South 
west — if  the  war  had  been  continued  another  year — if  the  ships 
of  New  England  had  gone  on  rotting  at  the  wharves — if  the 
great  army  of  fishermen  had  been  kept  from  their  accustomed 
haunts  another  season — if  the  industry  of  New  England,  in 
short,  had  remained  paralyzed  much  longer — other  conven 
tions  would  doubtless  have  assembled,  whose  resolves  would 
not  have  been  as  vague,  or  general,  or  fruitless,  as  those  of 
Hartford.  It  required  a  great  many  years  for  slow  New  En 
gland  to  arrive  at  Lexington  and  Bunker  Hill — but  she  got 
there  at  last.  It  took  two  years  and  a  half  of  a  war  which 
she  had  utterly  disapproved,  and  which  had  brought  her  to 
the  verge  of  ruin,  to  extort  from  her  so  mild  and  kind  a 
protest  as  that  of  the  Hartford  Convention.  But  there  is 
danger  in  a  people  who  begin  radical  movements  in  that 
quiet  way. 

Fiery  Jackson,  the  favorite  and  representative  of  the  na 
tional  instincts,  told  President  Monroe,  a  few  years  later,  that 
if  he  had  been  in  command  of  the  eastern  division  when  the 
Hartford  Convention  met,  he  would  have  hung  every  man  of 
them.  To  which,  I  may  add,  that  if  General  Jackson  had 
been  in  command  of  the  eastern  division  at  that  time,  he 
would  have  been  too  busy  in  keeping  the  British  out  of 


568  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

Penobscot  Bay,  or  in  driving  them  from  the  soil  of  Maine, 
and  making  impossible  their  return,  to  have  been  much  con 
cerned  about  a  score  of  quiet  gentlemen  in  black  passing  mild 
resolutions  in  secret  conclave  at  Hartford.  General  Jackson, 
moreover,  knew  no  more  about  the  Hartford  Convention  than 
any  orator  on  the  democratic  stump.  No  man  of  his  party 
knew  any  thing  about  it  at  that  day,  or  would  know,*  be 
cause  it  was  too  good  a  party  cry  to  spoil  by  correct  in 
formation. 

Mr.  Gallatin's  warning  letter  reached  the  President  when 
the  pecuniary  resources  of  the  government  were  at  the  low 
est  ebb.  The  Treasury  was  empty — it  was  worse  than 
empty — its  credit  was  impaired.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
war,  John  Jacob  Astor,  Stephen  Girard,  James  Parrish  and 
other  capitalists  had  been  glad  to  take  the  loan  of  sixteen 
millions  authorized  by  Congress  on  terms  which  the  gov 
ernment  considered  "advantageous."  In  May,  1814,  just 
before  the  bad  news  came,  a  sum  of  nine  millions  was  bor 
rowed  by  the  government  at  rates  varying  from  eighty-five  to 
eighty-eight.  In  August,  when  the  government's  need  was 
sorest,  and  the  news  of  June  6th  had  done  its  worst,  a  loan 
of  six  millions  was  advertised  for,  but  only  three  millions 
could  be  obtained,  and  that  by  a  loss  of  more  than  twenty 
dollars  in  every  hundred.  Colonel  McHenry,  in  his  Memoirs, 
mentions  an  amusing  instance  of  the  poverty  of  the  govern 
ment  during  the  last  months  of  the  war.  "  There  was  not 
even  money  enough  to  buy  fuel  to  keep  the  cadets  at  West 
Point  from  perishing,  when  resort  was  had  by  them  to  every 
old  building  and  out-house,  to  fence  rails,  and  shrubs  and 
roots,  until  Governor  Tompkins  threw  in  five  hundred  dol 
lars'  worth  of  wood,  which  was  met  by  the  cadets  on  its 
way  to  the  Point,  and  borne  to  their  quarters  on  their 
shoulders."  .'  lr 

The  disorder  in  the  currency  was  extreme.  John  Quincy 
Adams,  an  actor  in  the  events  of  that  day,  gives  us  his  opin- 

*  For  a  full  and  highly  interesting  account  of  tho  Hartford  Convention,  see 
S.  Gr.  Goodrich's  Recollections  of  a  Lifetime,  ii.  9. 


1814.]  THE     DARK     DAYS     OF     THE    WAR.  569 

ion  of  the  cause  and  a  statement  of  the  extent,  of  that  de 
rangement  ;  which,  in  view  of  events  to  be  hereafter  related, 
the  intelligent  reader  should  mark  and  remember.  Mr.  Adams 


"  By  an  unpropitious  combination  of  rival  interests,  and 
of  political  prejudices,  the  first  Bank  of  the  United  States, 
at  the  very  outset  of  the  war,  had  been  denied  the  renewal 
of  its  charter :  a  heavier  blow  of  illusive  and  contracted 
policy  could  scarcely  have  befallen  the  Union.  The  polar 
star  of  public  credit,  and  of  commercial  confidence,  was 
abstracted  from  the  firmament,  and  the  needle  of  the  compass 
wandered  at  random  to  the  four  quarters  of  the  heavens. 
From  the  root  of  the  fallen  trunk,  sprang  up  a  thicket  of 
suckers — never  destined  to  bear  fruit :  the  offspring  of  sum 
mer  vegetation,  withering  at  the  touch  of  the  first  winter's 
frost.  Yet,  upon  them  was  our  country  doomed  to  rely  ;  it 
was  her  only  substitute  for  the  shade  and  shelter  of  the  par 
ent  tree.  The  currency  soon  fell  into  frightful  disorder  : 
banks,  with  fictitious  capital,  swarmed  throughout  the  land, 
and  spunged  the  purse  of  the  people,  often  for  the  use  of  their 
own  money,  with  more  than  usurious  extortion.  The  solid 
banks,  even  of  this  metropolis,  were  enabled  to  maintain  their 
integrity,  only  by  contracting  their  operations  to  an  extent 
ruinous  to  their  debtors  and  themselves.  A  balance  of  trade, 
operating  like  universal  fraud,  vitiated  the  channels  of  inter 
course  between  North  and  South  :  and  the  Treasury  of  the 
Union  was  replenished  only  with  countless  millions  of  silken 
tatters  and  unavailable  funds  :  chartered  corporations,  bank 
rupt,  under  the  gentle  name  of  suspended  specie  payments, 
and  without  a  dollar  of  capital  to  pay  their  debts,  sold,  at 
enormous  discounts,  the  very  evidence  of  those  debts  ;  and 
passed  off,  upon  the  government  of  their  country,  at  par, 
their  rags — purchasable,  in  open  market,  at  depreciations  of 

*  Life  of  James  Monroe,  written  by  Mr.  Adams  in  1831 — -just  as  the  smoul 
dering  war  between  General  Jackson  and  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  was 
about  to  break  forth.  Hence,  the  warmth  and  force  of  the  passage  quoted — 
John  Quincy  Adams  being  a  leader  of  the  Bank  party. 


570  LIFE    OF    ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

thirty  and  forty  per  cent.  In  the  meantime,  so  degraded  was 
the  credit  of  the  nation,  and  so  empty  their  Treasury,  that 
Mr.  Monroe,  to  raise  the  funds  indispensable  for  the  defense 
of  New  Orleans,  could  obtain  them  only  by  pledging  his 
private  individual  credit,  as  subsidiary  to  that  of  the  nation/' 

Not  much  assistance  of  any  kind  could  the  central  gov 
ernment  afford  to  General  Jackson  in  his  operations  at  the 
South.  The  little  money  that  was  required  to  dispatch  some 
barge  loads  of  muskets  down  the  Ohio  from  Pittsburg,  most 
of  which  arrived  too  late,  and  the  comparatively  small  sums 
expended  in  Tennessee,  New  Orleans,  and  at  Mobile,  were 
raised,  as  Mr.  Adams  intimates,  by  the  personal  exertions  of 
Mr.  Monroe.  It  chanced  that  Major  William  B.  Lewis,  Jack 
son's  neighbor  and  quarter-master,  was  in  Washington  at 
this  time.  "Can  men  be  raised  for  New  Orleans  in  Ten 
nessee  and  Kentucky  ?"  asked  Secretary  Monroe  of  Major 
Lewis.  "  Unquestionably/'  replied  the  Major,  "  but  there 
are  no  arms  in  the  lower  country."  "  Then  we  must  send 
arms,"  said  the  Secretary. 

Colonel  McHenry,  a  friend  of  the  parties  in  the  transac 
tion,  and  perfectly  informed  of  all  its  particulars,  describes 
the  interesting  and  honorable  scene  to  which  Mr.  Adams 
refers  :  "  There  was  no  money  !  Applications  were  made  in 
all  directions  ;  appeals  to  the  patriotism  of  the  people  were 
heralded  in  all  directions,  and  the  most  imploring  calls  ut 
tered  to  come  to  the  rescue.  But  the  arm  of  the  nation  was 
paralyzed.  There  was  no  more  money,  and  confidence  was 
gone  !  It  was  in  this  dark  crisis  that  Mr.  Monroe  went  in 
person  to  the  Bank  of  Columbia,  and  made  an  appeal.  Gov 
ernment  securities  were  freely  offered,  and  at  great  sacrifices, 
but  in  vain  ;  when  he  looked  the  cashier,  William  Whann,  in 
the  face,  and  throwing  into  his  countenance  all  that  was  im 
ploring  and  impressive,  he  said, 

"  Mr.  Whann,  have  you  confidence  in  my  honor  ?  Will 
you  accept  a  pledge  of  that,  backed  by  all  my  private  fortune, 
that  this  sum,  now  so  indispensable  to  the  wants  of  the  gov 
ernment,  shall  be  made  good  ?  I  pledge  them  !" 


1814.]  THE     DARK     DATS     OF     THE     WAR.  571 

"  Mr.  Whann  repaired  to  the  directors'  room,  and  with 
a  heart  full  of  solicitude,  reported  all  that  had  passed,  when 
the  amount  wanted  was  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  govern 
ment.  It  was  that  very  amount,  obtained  in  that  way,  and 
which  could  have  been  obtained  in  no  other  way,  that  sustained 
Jackson's  army,  and  enabled  it  to  reach  New  Orleans  ;  and 
but  for  which,  or  an  indispensable  portion  of  it,  it  could  not 
have  moved  at  all."* 

Another  fact  must  be  recalled  to  the  reader's  recollection. 
The  war  had  been  thus  far  a  northern  war,  and  the  war  ma 
terial  in  the  possession  of  the  government — armies,  arms, 
ammunition,  forts,  barracks,  navy  yards — were  mostly  in  the 
North.  It  is  idle  to  blame  the  administration,  as  many  writ 
ers  have  done,  for  neglecting  the  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
Always  embarrassed  for  money,  always  compelled  to  attempt 
too  much,  it  was  impossible  to  spare  means  and  men  for  the 
protection  of  posts  six  weeks  from  Washington,  and  not  threat 
ened  by  the  enemy.  At  the  beginning  of  the  war,  General 
Wilkinson,  then  in  command  at  New  Orleans,  gave  the  Presi 
dent  an  outline  of  a  plan  for  the  defense  of  that  city,  which, 
if  carried  out,  would  have  absorbed  half  the  revenue  of  the 
government.  "  To  defend  New  Orleans  and  the  mouths  of 
the  Mississippi,"  wrote  Wilkinson,  "against  a  dominant  na 
val  force  and  six  thousand  veteran  troops,  rank  and  file,  from 
the  West  India  station,  the  following  force  is  indispensable  :" 
four  of  the  heaviest  national  vessels;  forty  gun-boats  to  mount 
eighteen  and  twenty-four  pounders  ;  six  steamboats  for  trans 
portation,  each  to  hold  four  hundred  men  and  a  month's  pro 
visions  ;  four  stout  radeaux,  each  to  mount  ten  twenty-four 
pounders  ;  ten  thousand  regular  troops  ;  four  thousand  five 
hundred  militia.  All  this  was  indispensable,  argues  the  gen 
eral  at  length,  and  he  bitterly  condemns  the  President  for  his 
"obstinacy"  in  not  adopting  the  scheme.  He  also  boasts 
that  the  President  said  during  the  alarm  for  the  safety  of 

*  Mr.  Adams  says  that  this  act  was  the  cause  of  the  pecuniary  embarrass 
ments  that  embittered  the  last  years  of  James  Monroe. 


LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

New  Orleans,  that  "  it  was  a  pity  General  Wilkinson's  plans 
had  not  been  carried  out." 

It  was  late  in  the  summer  of  1814  before  the  administra 
tion  began  to  suspect  the  enemy's  designs  upon  the  ports  of 
the  Gulf.  Kumors  of  those  designs  had  been  floating  about 
in  the  newspapers  ;  but  they  do  not  appear  to  have  been 
credited  by  men  at  the  head  of  affairs,  who  looked  to  their 
envoys  in  Europe  for  early  notice  of  the  enemy's  intentions. 
The  secret  was  well  kept  in  Europe  ;  the  first  intimations  of 
danger  came  from  the  West  Indies.  In  the  New  York  Even 
ing  Post  for  April  6th,  1814,  appeared  a  letter  from  New 
Orleans,  which  stated  that  the  captain  of  a  schooner  from 
New  Providence  had  brought  rumors  of  an  intended  attack 
on  New  Orleans,  for  which  gun-boats  were  building  at  New 
Providence.  The  information  was  said  to  have  been  derived 
from  the  captain  of  a  British  man-of-war.  The  editor  of  the 
Post,  in  commenting  upon  this  letter,  said  that  he  had  for 
some  time  thought,  for  various  reasons,  that  such  an  expedi 
tion  was  in  contemplation.  Whether  it  was  that  the  Federal 
editors  were  given  to  prognosticating  evil,  or  that  public  at 
tention  was  absorbed  by  passing  events,  this  rumor  attracted 
little  notice  and  less  credit. 

And  what  an  advantage  the  British  had  in  the  practi 
cal  possession  of  Florida,  with  Pensacola,  the  best  harbor 
on  the  Gulf,  only  half  a  day's  sail  or  two  days'  march  from 
Mobile  !  The  Spanish  held  Florida  with  too  feeble  a  grasp 
to  have  withheld  it  from  British  uses,  even  if  they  had 
desired  to  do  so.  They  could  not  have  desired  it.  En 
gland,  that  had  just  restored  the  Spanish  king  to  his  throne, 
would  soon  (who  could  doubt  it  ?)  have  Louisiana  in  her 
gift — the  long-lost,  ever-lamented,  Spanish  province  of  Loui 
siana  !  In  such  circumstances  what  could  Florida  be  but 
an  English  colony,  kept  up  at  Spanish  expense  ?  The  Brit 
ish  fleet  of  twelve  ships  sent  in  1814  to  take  Savannah, 
lay  for  several  weeks  under  Amelie  Island,  across  which  the 
Spaniards  of  East  Florida,  aided  by  the  authorities,  carried 
the  provisions  that  saved  the  fleet  from  the  necessity  of  reti**- 


1814.]        THE     DARK     DAYS     OF     THE     WAR.  573 

| 

ing.  The  Spanish  governor,  as  we  have  seen,  congratulated 
Weathersford  upon  his  victories  over  the  Americans,  and  re 
ceived  to  the  shelter  of  Pensacola  the  defeated  Creeks  flying 
before  the  resistless  march  of  Jackson.  And  now  Pensacola 
had  been  selected  by  the  English  as  the  basis  of  their  opera 
tions  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  ;  to  be  the  rendezvous  of  their 
fleets,  and  their  point  of  departure  against  Mobile  and  New 
Orleans. 

Spain  kept  up  a  show  of  friendship  with  the  United 
States,  which,  the  United  States,  unwilling  to  add  to  the 
number  of  its  enemies,  made  a  show  of  reciprocating.  The 
Governor  General  of  Cuba  went  through  the  form  of  refus 
ing  to  permit  the  landing  of  British  troops  at  Pensacola, 
and,  instantly  after  the  refusal,  the  commander  of  the  van 
guard  and  forerunner  of  the  great  expedition,  sailed  from 
Havana  to  Pensacola,  where  he  landed  troops,  hoisted  the 
British  flag,  took  up  his  quarters  in  the  Governor's  house, 
built  barracks  for  his  soldiers,  and  comported  himself,  in  all 
respects,  as  though  he  had  landed  in  a  British  colony.  This 
was  Spanish  neutrality  in  the  war  of  1812. 

With  such  advantages  on  the  side  of  the  enemy,  General 
Jackson  found  himself,  on  his  arrival  at  Mobile,  in  command 
of  parts  of  three  regiments  of  regular  troops,  a  thousand  miles 
of  coast  to  defend,  without  a  fort  garrisoned  or  adequately 
armed.  As  the  nature  of  his  situation  gradually  became 
apparent  to  him,  he  had  to  act  without  instructions.  Sel 
dom  has  the  most  experienced  officer  been  thrown  more 
exclusively  upon  the  resources  of  his  own  mind.  He  was 
alone,  this  wild  borderer,  this  man  of  the  fiery  word  and 
ready  blow,  this  unlettered  soldier  who  had  never  seen  the 
face  of  a  civilized  enemy  ;  alone,  to  solve  nice  questions  of 
diplomacy,  and  vital  questions  of  internal  police  ;  alone, 
against  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  confident  expeditions 
ever  sent  forth  by  the  mistress  of  the  seas  ! 


TOL.  i. — 37 


574  LIFE     OF     ANDEEW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

* 

CHAPTER      LIU. 

THE      ENGLISH      AT      PENSACOLA. 

AT  the  end  of  a  narrow,  beautiful  bay  that  penetrates  the 
coast  of  Florida  ten  miles  ;  on  a  low,  sandy  plain  half  a  mile 
wide,  open  in  front  to  the  breezes  of  the  bay,  and  bounded 
behind  by  a  peat  swamp  ;  its  harbor,  deep  enough  for  the 
largest  frigates,  sheltered  from  the  storms  of  the  Gulf  by  an 
island  that  narrows  the  entrance  to  three  quarters  of  a  mile  ; 
stands  the  ancient  town  of  Pensacola.  Kenowned,  in  the 
palmy  days  of  Spanish  rule,  for  its  gardens  and  grandees,  for 
its  fine  public  edifices  and  impregnable  fortifications,  for  its 
showy  garrison  and  wealthy  citizens,  it  had  been  reduced, 
many  years  before  the  period  of  which  we  now  write,  to  a 
poor  straggling  town  of  two  hundred  small  wooden  houses, 
and  fifteen  hundred  inhabitants.  The  Government  House 
itself,  in  1814,  was  a  two-story  frame  building,  of  the  most 
ordinary  appearance,  and  the  church  an  old  store-house  con 
verted  to  sacred  uses  by  the  addition  of  a  little  belfry  and  a 
white  cross.  The  gardens  were  all  overgrown  with  weeds  j 
the  imposing  edifices  had  been  burnt  ;  the  regularity  of  the 
streets  had  been  destroyed  through  the  corrupt  avarice  of  the 
governors,  and  the  place  was  as  dull  and  uninviting  as  idle 
poverty  and  idle  pride  could  make  it. 

To  the  harbor  alone  the  town  owed  whatever  importance 
it  possessed.  The  entrance  to  the  harbor  was  commanded 
by  Fort  Barrancas,  six  miles  from  the  town,  a  fort  which,  if 
properly  garrisoned,  was  capable  of  preventing  the  coming  in 
or  the  departure  of  a  fleet.  The  land  approaches  to  the  place 
were  guarded  by  another  fort,  a  battery,  and  some  inferior 
fortifications.  The  Governor  of  Pensacola,  besides  being  an 
adept  in  other  arts  of  the  Spanish  Circumlocution  Office, 
wrote  dispatches  in  the  style  of  a  Spanish  grandee  of  the 
first  magnitude.  But  his  garrison  consisted  of  a  few  com- 


1814.]  THE     ENGLISH     AT     PENSACOLA.  575 

panics  of  troops ;  and  when  he  had  in  his  magazines  powder 
enough  to  fire  two  royal  salutes,  he  had  more  powder  than 
his  magazines  could  always  boast.  In  short,  he  was  one  of 
the  poorest,  and  one  of  the  proudest  of  Spanish  governors. 
The  inhabitants  of  his  principality  seem  to  have  been  a 
miscellaneous  assemblage  of  fishermen,  West  India  traders, 
soldiers,  Indians,  half-breeds,  negroes,  and  a  class  of  men 
called  in  their  own  language,  privateersmen,  in  ours  pi 
rates. 

Pensacola  has  not  yet,  after  thirty  years  of  American  gov 
ernment,  shaken  off  the  spell  of  dullness  which  the  Spanish 
governors  left  upon  it.  It  has  added  but  five  hundred  to  the 
number  of  its  people.  It  boasts  of  but  twenty-five  hundred 
tons  of  shipping.  It  possesses  a  custom-house  officer,  who 
has  leisure  to  attend  to  the  chief  end  of  his  appointment.* 

In  the  latter  days  of  August,  1814,  the  town  and  port  of 
Pensacola  exhibited  nothing  of  their  wonted  tropical  lethar 
gy.  There  was  life  and  movement  everywhere.  In  the  harbor, 
eight  or  nine  British  armed  ships  lay  at  anchor.  Arms  and 
ammunition  in  great  quantities  were  landing  and  being  con 
veyed  to  the  forts.  A  body  of  negro  soldiers  from  the  West 
Indies,  in  the  British  uniform,  had  come  on  shore,  along  with 
several  companies  of  English  troops.  The  forts  were  in  course 
of  repair;  from  one  of  them  floated  the  English  flag  in  friendly 
conjunction  with  the  standard  of  Spain.  The  commander  of 
the  English  forces  had  taken  up  his  residence  with  the  Span 
ish  governor,  who  swelled  with  the  greatness  of  the  occasion. 
The  town  swarmed  with  Indians,  new  multitudes  of  whom 
were  coming  in  every  hour. 

These  ships  and  troops  were  the  forerunners  and  preparers 
of  the  way  of  the  great  EXPEDITION.  The  fleet  was  under 
the  command  of  Captain  the  Honorable  W.  H.  Percy,  of  the 
ship  Hermes.  The  commander  of  the  troops,  and  the  leader 

*  The  new  Custom  House  at  Pensacola,  Florida,  has  just  been  finished.  The 
cost  was  $50,000.  The  amount  of  revenue  collected  at  that  port  for  the  year 
ending  30th  June,  1857,  was,  in  round  numbers,  $478.  To  collect  this  sura  it 
cost  the  government  $3,012. — Newspaper  Paragraph,  1S58. 


576  LIFE     OF     ANDBEW    JACKSON.  [1814. 

of  the  expedition,  was  Lieutenant  Colonel  Edward  Nichols, 
an  Irish  officer,  who  had  served  with  distinction  in  Europe. 

Secrecy,  one  would  have  thought,  would  have  character 
ized  the  preliminary  operations  of  the  English  in  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico.  Nothing  was  further  from  the  thoughts  of  Col 
onel  Nichols.  If  his  superiors  had  designed  to  put  the 
Americans  on  their  guard,  to  give  them  the  longest  possible 
time  in  which  to  prepare  for  defense,  and  to  excite  to  the  ut 
most  their  combative  propensities,  they  could  not  have 
accomplished  those  benevolent  objects  better  than  by  appoint 
ing  to  the  command  of  this  preparatory  expedition  the  brave, 
the  loud,  the  robustious,  the  wonderfully  ill-informed  Colonel 
Nichols.  Singularly  unfitted  as  he  was  for  an  independent 
command  in  scenes  so  novel,  a  fatality  attended  all  his  move 
ments  from  the  beginning,  and  he  failed  in  every  one  of  his 
zealous  efforts  to  promote  the  ends  of  his  employers.  On  his 
way  from  the  Bahamas  to  Pensacola,  he  had  touched  at  Ha 
vana,  where  the  secret  of  his  destination  and  his  precise  objects 
escaped,  and  was  promptly  conveyed  to  New  Orleans.  No 
sooner  had  he  reached  Pensacola  than  he  published  to  his 
troops  an  Order  of  the  Day,  which  in  a  few  days  appeared  in 
the  newspapers  of  New  Orleans,  and  soon  in  many  other 
newspapers  of  the  South,  conveying  to  every  mind  the  idea 
of  most  earnest  and  stupendous  preparation. 

Fancy  the  citizens  of  Mobile  and  New  Orleans,  already 
alarmed  by  rumor  upon  rumor  of  coming  invasion,  reading, 
early  in  September,  such  a  document  as  the  following,  signed, 
"  Edward  Nichols,  commanding  his  Britannic  Majesty's  forces 
at  Pensacola ;"  report  magnifying  his  three  hundred  men  to  a 
great  army : — 

"  SOLDIERS  : — You  are  called  upon  to  discharge  a  duty  of  the  utmost 
danger,  of  the  utmost  peril.  You  will  have  to  perform  long  and  tedious 
marches  through  wildernesses,  swamps  and  water-courses ;  your  enemy 
from  long  habit  inured  to  the  climate,  will  have  great  advantages  over  you. 
But  remember  the  twenty-one  years  of  toil  and  glory  of  your  country, 
and  resolve  to  follow  the  example  of  your  glorious  companions,  who  have 
fought  and  spilt  their  blood  in  her  service.  Be  equally  faithful  and  strict 


1814.]  THE     ENGLISH     AT     PENSACOLA.  577 

in  your  moral  discipline,  and  this,  the  last  and  most  perfidious  of  your  ene 
mies,  will  not  long  maintain  himself  before  you.  A  cause  so  sacred  as  that 
which  has  led  you  to  draw  your  swords  in  Europe,  will  make  you  unsheathe 
them  in  America,  and  I  trust  you  will  use  them  with  equal  credit  and  advan 
tage.  In  Europe,  your  arms  were  not  employed  in  defense  of  your  coun 
try  only,  but  of  all  those  who  groaned  in  the  chains  of  oppression,  and  in 
America  they  are  to  have  the  same  direction.  The  people  whom  you  are 
now  to  aid  and  assist  have  suffered  robberies  and  murders  committed  on 
them  by  the  Americans. 

"  The  noble  Spanish  nation  has  grieved  to  see  her  territories  insulted ; 
having  been  robbed  and  despoiled  of  a  portion  of  them  while  she  was 
overwhelmed  with  distress  and  held  down  by  the  chains  which  a  tyrant 
had  imposed  on  her  gloriously  struggling  for  the  greatest  of  all  possible 
blessings  (true  liberty).  The  treacherous  Americans,  who  call  themselves 
free,  have  attacked  her,  like  assassins,  while  she  was  fallen.  But  the  day 
of  retribution  is  fast  approaching.  These  atrocities  will  excite  horror  in 
the  heart  of  a  British  soldier,  they  will  stimulate  you  to  avenge  them,  and 
you  will  avenge  them  like  British  soldiers.  Valor,  then,  and  humanity  ! 

"  As  to  the  Indians,  you  are  to  exhibit  to  them  the  most  exact  disci 
pline,  being  a  pattern  to  those  children  of  nature.  You  will  have  to  teach 
and  instruct  them ;  in  doing  which  you  will  manifest  the  utmost  patience, 
and  you  will  correct  them  when  they  deserve  it.  But  you  will  regard 
their  affections  arid  antipathies,  and  never  give  them  just  cause  of  offense. 
Sobriety,  above  all  things,  should  be  your  greatest  care — a  single  instance 
of  drunkenness  may  be  our  ruin ;  and  I  declare  to  you,  in  the  most 
solemn  manner,  that  no  consideration  whatsoever  shall  induce  me  to  for 
give  a  drunkard.  Apprised  of  this  declaration,  if  any  of  you  break  my 
orders  in  this  respect,  he  will  consider  himself  as  the  just  cause  of  his  own 
chastisement.  Sobriety  is  your  first  duty ;  I  ask  of  you  the  observance  of 
it  among  your  brethren.  Vigilance  is  our  next  duty.  Nothing  is  so  dis 
graceful  to  our  army  as  surprise — nothing  so  destructive  to  our  cause." 

Not  satisfied  with,  this  piece  of  imprudence,  and  pleased, 
apparently,  with  the  effusions  of  his  pen,  Colonel  Nichols 
next  produced  his  celebrated,  his  immortal  Proclamation, 
addressed  to  the  inhabitants  of  Louisiana  and  Kentucky. 
Considering  all  the  circumstances,  this  address  maybe  classed 
among  the  comic  productions  of  the  war.  But  though  it 
can  not  now  be  read  without  a  smile  at  the  author's  amazing 
ignorance  of  American  feelings  and  character,  it  excited,  at 
the  time  of  its  appearance,  soon  afterwards,  in  the  southern 
newspapers,  boundless  contempt  and  rage  : — 


578  LIFE     OF     ANDREW    JACKSON.  [1814. 

"  Natives  of  Louisiana !  on  you  the  first  call  is  made  to  assist  in  liber 
ating  from  a  faithless,  imbecile  government,  your  paternal  soil :  Spaniards, 
Frenchmen,  Italians,  and  British,  whether  settled  or  residing  for  a  time  in 
Louisiana,  on  you,  also,  I  call  to  aid  me  in  this  just  cause :  the  American 
usurpation  in  this  country  must  be  abolished,  and  the  lawful  owners  of  the 
soil  put  in  possession.  I  am  at  the  head  of  a  large  body  of  Indians,  well 
armed,  disciplined,  and  commanded  by  British  officers— a  good  train  of 
artillery  with  every  requisite,  seconded  by  the  powerful  aid  of  a  numerous 
British  and  Spanish  squadron  of  ships  and  vessels  of  war.  Be  not  alarmed, 
inhabitants  of  the  country,  at  our  approach ;  the  same  good  feith  and  dis 
interestedness  which  have  distinguished  the  conduct  of  Britons  in  Europe, 
accompanies  them  here ;  you  will  have  no  fear  of  litigious  taxes  imposed 
on  you  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on  an  unnatural  and  unjust  war;  your 
property,  your  laws,  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of  your  country,  will  be 
guaranteed  to  you  by  men  who  will  suffer  no  infringement  of  theirs ;  rest 
assured  that  these  brave  red  men  only  burn  with  an  ardent  desire  of  satis 
faction,  for  the  wrongs  they  have  suffered  from  the  Americans,  to  join  you 
in  liberating  these  southern  provinces  from  their  yoke,  and  drive  them  into 
those  limits  formerly  prescribed  by  my  sovereign.  The  Indians  have 
pledged  themselves,  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  not  to  injure,  in  the  slight 
est  degree,  the  persons  or  properties  of  any  but  enemies  to  their  Spanish 
or  English  fathers.  A  flag  over  any  door,  whether  Spanish,  French,  or 
British,  will  be  a  certain  protection,  nor  dare  any  Indian  put  his  foot  on 
the  threshold  thereof,  under  penalty  of  death  from  his  own  countrymen ; 
not  even  an  enemy  will  an  Indian  put  to  death,  except  resisting  in  arms, 
and  as  for  injuring  helpless  women  and  children,  the  red  men,  by  their  good 
conduct  and  treatment  to  them,  will  (if  it  be  possible)  make  the  Ameri 
cans  blush  for  their  more  inhuman  conduct  lately  on  the  Escambia,  and 
within  a  neutral  territory. 

"Inhabitants  of  Kentucky,  you  have  too  long  borne  with  grievous 
impositions — the  whole  brunt  of  the  war  has  fallen  on  your  brave  sons ; 
be  imposed  on  no  longer,  but  either  range  yourselves  under  the  standard 
of  your  forefathers,  or  observe  a  strict  neutrality ;  if  you  comply  with 
either  of  these  offers,  whatever  provisions  you  send  down,  will  be  paid  for 
in  dollars,  and  the  safety  of  the  persons  bringing  it,  as  well  as  the  free  navi 
gation  of  the  Mississippi,  guaranteed  to  you. 

"  Men  of  Kentucky,  let  me  call  to  your  view  (and  I  trust  to  your  ab 
horrence)  the  conduct  of  those  factions  which  hurried  you  into  this  civil, 
unjust,  and  unnatural  war,  at  a  time  when  Great  Britain  was  straining 
every  nerve  in  defense  of  her  own  and  the  liberties  of  the  world — when 
the  bravest  of  her  sons  were  fighting  and  bleeding  in  so  sacred  a  cause 
— when  she  was  spending  millions  of  her  treasure  in  endeavoring  to  pull 
down  one  of  the  most  formidable  and  dangerous  tyrants  that  ever  disgraced 


1814.]         THE     ENGLISH     AT     PENSACOLA.  579 

the  form  of  man — when  groaning  Europe  was  almost  in  her  last  gasp 
— when  Britons  alone  showed  an  undaunted  front — basely  did  those  assas 
sins  endeavor  to  stab  her  from  the  rear ; — she  has  turned  on  them,  reno 
vated  from  the  bloody  but  successful  struggle.  Europe  is  happy  and  free, 
and  she  now  hastens  justly  to  avenge  the  unprovoked  insult.  Show  them 
that  you  are  not  collectively  unjust ;  leave  that  contemptible  few  to  shift 
for  themselves,  let  those  slaves  of  the  tyrant  send  an  embassy  to  Elba,  and 
implore  his  aid  ;  but  let  every  honest,  upright  American  spurn  them  with 
united  contempt.  After  the  experience  of  twenty-one  years,  can  you  any 
longer  support  those  brawlers  for  liberty,  who  call  it  freedom  when  them 
selves  are  free  ?  Be  no  longer  their  dupes — accept  of  my  offers — every 
thing  I  have  promised  in  this  paper  I  guarantee  to  you,  on  the  sacred 
honor  of  a  British  officer." 


While  Colonel  Nichols  was  thus  employed  in  the  pleasing 
toil  of  composition,  Captain  Woodbine,  one  of  his  officers, 
was  busy  with  the  Indians  of  Florida.  Kunners  had  been 
dispatched  in  every  direction  to  invite  the  Creeks  and  Serui- 
noles  to  come  to  Pensacola,  and  enroll  themselves  into  the 
service  of  the  King  of  England.  Arms  had  been  distributed 
in  great  numbers  to  the  Indians  of  Florida,  from  a  British 
ship  at  Appalachicola,  a  month  before.  A  body  of  seven 
hundred  painted  warriors  were  soon  at  hand,  to  receive  any 
thing  else  the  English  might  have  to  give  away,  and  to  bind 
themselves  in  the  most  solemn  manner  to  do  any  thing  the 
English  might  require.  Arms  and  ammunition  were  again 
given  out  in  profusion.  In  ludicrous  ignorance  of  the  Indian 
character,  Colonel  Nichols  and  Captain  Woodbine  supposed 
it  possible  to  drill  Indians  into  serviceable  soldiers,  as  the 
Indians  of  the  East  Indies  are  drilled.  Accordingly,  Captain 
Woodbine,  to  whom  this  duty  was  assigned,  committed  the 
absurdity  of  clothing  a  large  number  of  them  in  the  red  uni 
form  of  the  army,  and  forming  them  into  regular  companies 
and  battalions  !  Such  scenes  of  preposterous  costuming,  of 
tripping  over  swords,  of  hopeless  drill,  and  mad  marching  and 
countermarching,  as  the  common  of  Pensacola  then  witnessed, 
can  be  imagined  only  by  those  who  know  precisely  what  sort 
of  creatures  Indians  are.  Captain  Woodbine  might  as  well 


580  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

have  attempted  to  train  the  alligators  of  the  Florida  lagoons 
for  the  British  artillery  service. 

To  a  gentleman  in  the  situation  of  Colonel  Nichols  it  was 
easier  to  write  a  proclamation  for  the  people  of  Louisiana  and 
Kentucky  than  it  was  to  place  that  proclamation  where  the 
people  of  Louisiana  and  Kentucky  could  read  it.  To  that 
more  difficult  feat  the  commander  of  the  forces  next  addressed 
himself.  He  succeeded  in  his  object,  as  shall  be  narrated  in  a 
moment ;  and  it  was  the  only  object  in  which  he  did  succeed 
during  his  residence  in  Florida. 

Captain  Percy,  a  man  of  different  caliber  from  the  doughty 
Nichols,  was,  meanwhile,  attending  to  the  vital  objects  of 
the  expedition,  which  were  to  obtain  knowledge  of  the  Gulf 
ports,  and,  above  all,  to  procure  native  pilots  for  the  coming 
fleet. 

On  the  1st  of  September,  the  sloop-of-war  Sophia,  under 
the  command  of  Captain  Lockyer,  left  her  anchorage  in  the 
harbor  of  Pensacola,  passed  by  the  frowning  Fort  Barrancas, 
and  sailing  down  the  long  narrow  bay,  stood  out  into  the  open 
Gulf.  She  was  bound  upon  an  errand  from  which  the  most 
important  results  were  expected. 


CHAPTER    LIV. 

THE  DEEP  GAME  OF  JEAN  LAFITTE. 

A  FAIR  breeze  wafted  the  Sophia  so  swiftly  across  the 
Gulf  that,  on  the  morning  of  the  3d  of  September,  she  was 
firing  signal  guns  off  Barrataria,  a  little  bay  formed  by  the 
island  of  Grand  Terre,  forty  miles  directly  south  of  New 
Orleans,  with  which  it  has  communication  by  water.  Bar 
rataria  was  the  far-famed  "  Pirates7  Home,"  the  residence  of 
that  renowned  individual  who  is  known  to  the  lovers  of  ro 
mance  as  "  Lafitte,  the  Pirate  of  the  Gulf." 


1814.]       THE     DEEP     GAME     OF     JEAN.LAFITTE.         581 

Jean  Lafitte,  it  will  distress  the  ingenuous  youth  of  the 
United  States  to  learn,  was  no  pirate  at  all,  nor  even  a  sailor, 
but  a  French  blacksmith,  who  emigrated  from  Bordeaux  to 
New  Orleans,  at  which  latter  city  there  are  persons  still  living 
who  remember  seeing  him  ply  the  useful  hammer  in  his  shop 
at  the  corner  of  Bourbon  and  St.  Philip  streets.  He  did  not 
know  enough  of  the  art  of  navigation  to  manage  a  sail-boat,* 
and  was  never  at  sea  but  twice  in  his  life ;  once,  when  he  came 
from  France,  and  again  when,  flying  from  the  odious  name 
of  pirate,  he  and  all  his  possessions  sank  to  the  bottom  of  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  when  the  signal 
success  of  the  American  Kevolution,  aided  by  the  subsequent 
prosperity  and  orderly  government  of  the  young  republic,  had 
set  half  the  world  revolutionizing,  the  American  colonies  of 
Spain  were  deep  in  the  great  business  of  "  throwing  off  the 
yoke."  As  one  mode  of  warring  upon  the  mother  country 
letters  of  marque  were  granted  by  the  new  governments  to 
adventurers  of  every  nation.  In  the  long  wars  between  France 
and  Spain,  and  between  France  and  England,  privateering 
commissions  were  sold  by  the  French,  and  granted  by  the 
English,  to  all  applicants.  And  thus  it  was,  that  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  first  fifteen  years  of  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury,  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  the  Caribbean  Sea,  and  the  waters 
adjacent,  swarmed  with  privateers,  waging  a  comparatively 
safe  and  most  lucrative  war  upon  the  industry  of  mankind. 
In  course  of  time,  the  bay  of  Barrataria,  which  afforded  safe 
anchorage  for  small  vessels,  and  into  which  large  ships  could 
not  enter,  became  the  head-quarters,  the  rendezvous,  the  grand 
depository  of  these  licensed  pirates.  Thither  were  brought 
the  dollars  from  the  Spanish  galleons,  the  rich  cargoes  of 
Indiamen,  the  spoils  of  all  nations.  There  the  wounded 
privateersmen  healed  their  gashes,  and  reposed  after  their 
toils.  Thither  resorted  the  traders  of  New  Orleans  to  buy, 
at  their  own  prices,  the  costly  plunder  of  the  world's  com- 

*  Walker's  Jackson  and  New  Orleans. 


582  LIFE. OF     AIsDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

merce,  which  was  conveyed  with  a  show  of  secrecy  to  New 
Orleans,  to  be  sold  on  a  scale  of  profit  that  laid  the  founda 
tions  of  many  a  great  estate. 

Into  this  bad  trade  Jean  Lafitte  and  his  two  brothers, 
Pierre  and  Dominique,  were  seduced.  They  removed  to  Bar- 
rataria,  where  Jean,  by  his  talents,  tact,  and  energy,  became, 
at  length,  the  leading  man,  and  ruled  the  whole  body  of  free 
booters  with  an  authority  rarely  disputed,  and  when  disputed, 
enforced  by  the  silencing  argument  of  the  pistol.  For  the  ac 
commodation  of  the  men,  a  number  of  huts  and  houses  had 
been  erected,  which  were  defended  by  some  rude  fortifications 
and  a  battery  mounting  several  pieces  of  cannon.  There,  for 
some  years,  the  Lafittes  lived  and  flourished,  enriching  the 
illicit  traders  of  New  Orleans,  damaging  the  legitimate  mer 
chant,  and  defrauding  the  revenue  of  the  United  States.  We 
must  not  judge  the  deeds  of  the  past  by  the  moral  feeling  of 
the  present ;  else  it  were  hardly  creditable  to  the  fame  of  Ed 
ward  Livingston,  the  ablest  lawyer  of  the  South-west,  and  one 
of  the  ablest  men  in  the  Union,  that  he  was  long  the  legal  adviser 
of  the  Lafittes,  and  aided  them  essentially  at  critical  times. 

It  happened  that  the  very  time  of  which  we  are  writing 
was  a  very  critical  one  for  Jean  Lafitte.  Either  the  regular 
dealers  of  New  Orleans  had  remonstrated  so  vigorously  against 
the  illegal  traffic  that  the  government  were  compelled  to  take 
measures  for  its  suppression,  or,  as  others  assert,  the  fabulous 
wealth  that  was  supposed  to  be  stored  at  the  Pirates'  Home 
was  a  prize  they  were  resolved  to  seize.  Dominique  Lafitte 
had  been  already  arrested,  and  was  in  irons  in  a  New  Orleans 
prison.  Commodore  Patterson,  the  naval  commander  of  the 
station,  was  fitting  out  an  expedition  at  that  city  for  the 
purpose  of  breaking  up  the  settlement  at  Barrataria,  and 
seizing  all  the  goods  and  persons  to  be  found  there.  Jean 
Lafitte  was  in  sore  perplexity.  At  the  moment  of  his  hear 
ing  the  signal  guns  of  the  sloop-of-war  Sophia,  he  might  have 
been,  he  probably  was,  preparing  to  exepute  the  intention  he 
had  formed  of  removing  his  establishment  to  some  safer  haven 
on  the  Gulf. 


1814.]        THE     DEEP     GAME    OF    JEAN    LAFITTE.  583 

The  Sophia's  guns  brought  the  whole  settlement,  two 
hundred  persons  or  more,  to  the  beach.  Lafitte  ordered  out 
his  boat,  and  proceeded,  rowed  by  four  men,  to  the  shallow 
strait  that  formed  the  entrance  to  the  harbor  ;  where  he  saw, 
not  without  astonishment,  an  armed  vessel  showing  British 
colors.  At  the  same  moment  a  boat,  with  a  white  signal  fly 
ing  from  the  bow,  and  the  British  flag  from  the  stern,  darted 
from  the  vessel's  side  and  rapidly  approached  him.  It  con 
tained  three  officers  in  British  uniform,  who  proved  to  be 
Captain  Lockyer,  a  lieutenant  of  the  Sophia,  and  a  captain 
of  the  army.  Upon  coming  up.  Captain  Lockyer  called  out 
his  name  and  rank,  and  inquired  if  Mr.  Lafitte  was  at  home. 
Lafitte,  puzzled  at  these  proceedings,  replied  that  that  indi 
vidual  could  be  seen  on  shore  at  the  settlement,  and  invited 
the  officers  to  accompany  him  to  Mr.  Lafitte's  quarters.  On 
the  way  across  the  harbor,  however,  he  announced  himself  as 
Jean  Lafitte  ;  whereupon  Captain  Lockyer  handed  him  a 
package,  directed  to  "  Mr.  Lafitte,"  which  Captain  Lockyer 
stated  was  an  important  communication  from  the  British 
government.  Lafitte  cautioned  them  to  conceal  their  object 
from  the  men  on  shore.  These  lawless  buccaneers,  it  may  be 
remarked,  besides  being,  in  their  way,  loyal  to  the  United 
States,  had  a  lively  recollection  of  a  dash  made  upon  their 
settlement  by  British  ships  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  when 
some  of  their  vessels  had  been  captured,  and  some  of  their 
plunder  carried  off.  When,  therefore,  the  uniform  of  the 
officers  was  recognized  by  the  crowd  on  the  beach,  a  tumult 
arose,  and  they  clamored  loudly  for  their  seizure. 

Lafitte  contrived  to  pacify  them  for  the  moment,  and  con 
ducted  the  officers  to  his  quarters.  Before  proceeding  to 
business,  Lafitte,  who  was  a  man  of  superior  address,  and 
exceedingly  polite,  ordered  a  repast  to  be  prepared  for  his 
guests.  The  costliest  wines  of  Spain,  the  daintiest  fruits  of 
the  West  Indies,  the  fish  and  game  of  the  neighborhood,  were 
served  to  the  astonished  officers  on  the  finest  carved  silver 
plate  ;  and  the  urbane  Lafitte  presided  at  the  feast  with  the 
courtly  grace  that  belonged  to  Frenchmen  of  that  day,  whether 


584  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

peasants,  privateeersmen,  or  nobles.  The  banquet  over,  cigars 
were  ban  led  round,  of  a  flavor  which  seldom  regales  the  senses 
of  people  who  obtain  their  cigars  by  the  vulgar  process  of 
purchase.  While  these  were  discussed,  the  polite  and  reticent 
Mr.  Lafitte  proceeded  to  open  and  examine  the  packet  ad 
dressed  to  him. 

It  proved  to  contain  four  documents  :  First,  Colonel 
Nicholas  proclamation,  which  the  reader  has  already  had 
an  opportunity  of  admiring  ;  Secondly,  a  letter  from  "  Ed 
ward  Nichols  to  Mr.  Lafitte,  the  commandant  at  Barrataria," 
which  read  thus  : — 

"I  have  arrived  in  the  Floridas  for  the  purpose  of  annoying  the 
qnly  enemy  Great  Britain  has  in  the  world,  as  France  and  England  are 
now  friends.  I  call  on  you,  with  your  brave  followers,  to  enter  into  the 
service  of  Great  Britain,  in  which  you  shall  have  the  rank  of  a  captain ; 
lands  will  be  given  to  you  all  in  proportion  to  your  respective  ranks,  on  a 
peace  taking  place,  and  I  invite  you  on  the  following  terms.  Your  prop 
erty  shall  be  guaranteed  to  you,  and  your  persons  protected ;  in  return  for 
which  I  ask  you  to  cease  all  hostilities  against  Spain,  or  the  allies  of  Great 
Britain.  Your  ships  and  vessels  to  be  placed  under  the  orders  of  the  com 
manding  officer  on  this  station,  until  the  commander-in-chief  's  pleasure  is 
known ;  but  I  guarantee  their  fair  value  at  all  events.  I  herewith  inclose 
you  a  copy  of  my  proclamation  to  the  inhabitants  of  Louisiana,  which  will 
I  trust,  point  out  to  you  the  honorable  intentions  of  my  government.  You 
may  be  a  useful  assistant  to.  me,  in  forwarding  them ;  therefore,  if  you 
determine,  lose  no  time.  The  bearer  of  this,  Captain  M' Williams,  will 
satisfy  you  on  any  other  point  you  may  be  anxious  to  learn,  as  will  Cap 
tain  Lockyer  of  the  Sophia,  who  brings  him  to  you.  We  have  a  powerful 
reinforcement  on  its  way  here  ;  and  I  hope  to  cut  out  some  other  work  for 
the  Americans  than  oppressing  the  inhabitants  of  Louisiana.  Be  expedi 
tious  in  your  resolves,  and  rely  on  the  verity  of  your  very  humble  servant, 

"  EDWARD  NICHOLS." 

This  was  a  strong  appeal  to  Mr.  Lafitte's  sense  of  interest, 
though  the  offer  of  a  captaincy  in  the  navy  must  have  amused, 
him.  Another  letter  in  the  package,  however,  appealed  to 
his  fears.  It  was  a  general  epistle  from  Captain  Percy  to 
the  inhabitants  of  Barrataria,  of  which  the  following  is  a 
copy :— 


1814.]      THE     DEEP     GAME     OF     JEAN    LAFITTE.       585 

"  Having  understood  that  some  British  merchantmen  have  been  de 
tained,  taken  into  and  sold  by  the  inhabitants  of  Barrataria,  I  have  directed 
Captain  Lockyer;  of  his  majesty's  sloop  Sophia,  to  proceed  to  that  place, 
and  inquire  into  the  circumstances,  with  positive  orders  to  demand  instant 
restitution,  and  in  case  of  refusal  to  destroy  to  his  utmost  every  vessel  there, 
as  well  as  to  carry  destruction  over  the  whole  place,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  assure  him  of  the  cooperation  of  all  his  majesty's  naval  forces  on  this 
station.  I  trust,  at  the  same  time,  that  the  inhabitants  of  Barrataria,  con 
sulting  their  own  interest,  will  not  make  it  necessary  to  proceed  to  such 
extremes.  I  hold  out  at  the  same  time,  a  war  instantly  destructive  to  them ; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  should  they  be  inclined  to  assist  Great  Britain  in 
ner  just  and  unprovoked  war  against  the  United  States,  the  security  of 
their  property,  the  blessings  of  the  British  constitution ;  and,  should  they 
be  inclined  to  settle  on  this  continent,  lands  will,  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
war,  be  allotted  to  them  in  his  majesty's  colonies  in  America.  In  return 
for  all  those  concessions  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain,  I  expect  that  the 
direction  of  their  armed  vessels  will  be  put  into  my  hands  (for  which  they 
will  be  remunerated),  the  instant  cessation  of  hostilities  against  the  Span 
ish  government,  and  the  restitution  of  any  undisposed  property  of  that 
nation. 

"  Should  any  inhabitants  be  inclined  to  volunteer  their  services  into 
his  majesty's  forces,  either  naval  or  military,  for  limited  service,  they  will 
be  received ;  and  if  any  British  subject,  being  at  Barrataria,  wishes  to  re 
turn  to  his  native  country,  he  will,  on  joining  his  majesty's  service,  receive 
a  free  pardon." 

Lastly,  the  package  contained  a  copy  of  Captain  Percy's 
orders  to  Captain  Lockyer,  part  of  which  the  latter  was  then 
and  there  obeying,  and  which  concluded  with  these  words  : 
"  Should  you  succeed  completely  in  the  object  for  which  you 
are  sent,  you  will  concert  such  measures  for  the  annoyance 
of  the  enemy  as  you  judge  best  from  circumstances — having 
an  eye  to  the  junction  of  their  small  armed  vessels  with  me 
for  the  capture  of  Mobile,  etc.  You  will,  at  all  events,  your 
self  join  me  with  the  utmost  dispatch  at  this  post  with  the 
accounts  of  your  success."* 

*  These  documents,  and  all  others  relating  to  this  singular  affair,  are  from  the 
appendix  to  Major  Latour's  "  Historical  Memoir  of  the  "War  in  West  Florida  and 
Louisiana  in  1814  and  1815."  Many  of  the  minor  particulars  were  derived 
from  "Jackson  and  New  Orleans,"  by  Mr.  Alexander  "Walker.  Other  facts  T 
have  obtained  from  newspapers  and  conversation. 


586  LIFE     OF      ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

As  soon  as  Lafitte  had  possessed  himself  of  the  contents 
of  the  package,  Captain  Lockyer  opened  a  conversation  with 
him,  unfolding  more  fully  the  plans  of  the  British  govern 
ment,  and  setting  forth  the  many  and  brilliant  advantages 
that  would  accrue  to  him  if  he  should  engage  in  the  British 
service.  Besides  the  naval  captaincy,  he  offered  to  Lafitte  a 
sum  of  thirty  thousand  dollars  in  cash,  payable  at  New  Or 
leans  or  Pensacola.  The  war,  said  Lockyer,  was  about  to  be 
prosecuted  with  unusual  vigor.  The  great  expedition  against 
New  Orleans  was  already  on  its  way.  There  could  be  no 
doubt  of  its  success.  Indeed,  they  expected  to  meet  with 
scarcely  any  opposition  in  Louisiana,  the  people  of  which 
being  of  different  manners  and  temper  from  the  Americans, 
would  receive  the  expedition,  he  thought,  with  joy.  As 
soon  as  the  English  were  in  possession  of  New  Orleans,  they 
intended  to  effect  a  junction  with  the  foices  in  Canada,  when 
the  United  States  would  be  at  their  mercy.  From  being  pro 
scribed  and  persecuted,  his  brother  in  prison  and  his  estab 
lishment  in  danger,  he  had  only  to  join  the  English,  and  give 
them  the  benefit  of  his  intimate  knowledge  of  the  Gulf,  and 
rank,  fame,  and  fortune  were  his  own. 

What  a  situation  for  an  ex-blacksmith,  and  wholesale 
dealer  in  privateers'  plunder  !  Tempted  with  offers  he 
could  not  accept,  in  return  for  services  it  was  impossible 
for  him  io  render  ! 

Lafitte,  like  the  canny  Frenchman  that  he  was,  seemed 
to  acquiesce  in  all  that  Captain  Lockyer  had  advanced  ;  but, 
wishing  to  gain  time  for  reflection,  he  said  he  desired  to  go  on 
board  a  vessel  in  the  bay  to  consult  with  an  old  comrade  in 
whose  judgment  he  confided.  He  left  the  officers  at  his  house, 
and  departed.  In  his  absence,  the  Barratarians,  who  had 
watched  this  long  conference  with  suspicious  eyes,  gathered 
round  the  house,  and  began  again  to  threaten  the  officers 
with  seizure.  The  timely  return  of  the  chief  quieted  the 
tumult.  Lafitte  then  politely  conducted  the  officers  to  their 
boat,  telling  them,  on  their  way,  that  they  should  hear  from 
him  the  next  morning.  He  remained  on  the  beach  until  the 


1814.]       THE     DEEP     GAME     OF     JEAN     LAFITTE.          587 

officers  were  safely  beyond  the  little  fleet  at  anchor  in  the 
bay,  and  then  returned  to  his  quarters. 

On  the  following  day,  Lafitte  sent  on  board  the  Sophia 
the  following  letter  to  Captain  Lockyer  : — 

"  SIR  :  The  confusion  which  prevailed  in  our  camp  yesterday  and  this 
morning,  and  of  which  you  have  a  complete  knowledge,  has  prevented  me 
from  answering  in  a  precise  manner  to  the  object  of  your  mission :  nor 
even  at  this  moment  can  I  give  you  all  the  satisfaction  that  you  desire. 
However,  if  you  could  grant  me  a  fortnight,  I  would  be  entirely  at  your 
disposal  at  the  end  of  that  time.  This  delay  is  indispensable  to  send  away 
the  three  persons  who  have  alone  occasioned  all  the  disturbance.  The  two 
who  are  the  most  troublesome  are  to  leave  this  place  in  eight  days,  and  the 
other  is  to  go  to  town.  The  remainder  of  the  time  is  necessary  to  enable 
me  to  put  my  affairs  in  order.  You  can  communicate  with  me  in  sending 
a  boat  to  the  eastern  point  of  the  pass,  where  I  will  be  found.  You  have 
inspired  me  with  more  confidence  than  the  Admiral,  your  superior  officer, 
could  have  done  himself.  With  you  alone  I  wish  to  deal,  and  from  you 
also  I  will  claim  in  due  time  the  reward  of  the  services  which  I  may  render 
to  you.  Be  so  good,  sir,  as  to  favor  me  with  an  answer,  and  believe  me 
yours,  Lafitte." 

A  well-executed  letter  for  the  writer's  purpose.  Captain 
Lockyer  replied  that  he  would  return  in  fifteen  days  to  accept 
Mr.  Lafitte' s  services. 

Apart  from  his  vocation,  Jean  Lafitte  was  an  honorable 
and  feeling  man.  Without  having  wavered  for  one  moment 
in  his  allegiance  to  the  United  States,  or  having  had  any 
other  design  but  to  deceive  the  British  officers,  be  began  on 
that  very  day,  the  4th  of  September,  to  take  measures  for 
sending  an  account  of  what  had  occurred  to  the  authorities  at 
New  Orleans.  A  packet  was  promptly  prepared,  enclosing  all 
the  documents  left  by  Captain  Lockyer,  and  two  letters  from 
Lafitte,  one  addressed  to  M.  Blanque,  a  member  of  the  Legis 
lature,  and  the  other  to  Governor  Claiborne.  Lafitte's  letters 
do  him  honor.  To  M.  Blanque,  after  enumerating  the  con 
tents  of  the  package,  he  wrote  : — 

"  You  will  see  the  advantages  I  might  have  derived  from  that  kind  of 
association.  I  may  have  evaded  the  payment  of  duties  to  the  custom 


588  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

house,  but  I  have  never  ceased  to  be  a  good  citizen ;  and  all  the  offenses  I 
have  committed  I  was  forced  to  by  certain  vices  in  our  laws.  In  short, 
sir,  I  make  you  the  depository  of  the  secret  on  which  perhaps  depends 
the  tranquillity  of  our  country;  please  to  make  such  use  of  it  as  your  judg 
ment  may  direct.  I  might  expatiate  on  this  proof  of  patriotism,  but  I  let 
the  fact  speak  for  itself.  I  presume,  however,  to  hope  that  such  proceed 
ings  may  obtain  amelioration  of  the  situation  of  my  unhappy  brother,  with 
which  view  I  recommend  him  particularly  to  your  influence.  It  is  in  the 
bosom  of  a  just  man,  of  a  true  American,  endowed  with  all  other  qualities 
that  are  honored  in  society,  that  I  think  I  am  depositing  the  interests  of 
our  common  country,  and  what  particularly  concerns  myself. 

"  Our  enemies  have  endeavored  to  work  on  me  by  a  motive  which  few 
men  would  have  resisted.  They  represented  to  me  a  brother  in  irons — a 
brother  who  is  to  me  very  dear !  whose  deliverer  I  might  become,  and  I 
declined  the  proposal.  Well  persuaded  of  his  innocence,  I  am  free  from 
apprehension  as  to  the  issue  of  a  trial ;  but  he  is  sick,  and  not  in  a  place 
where  he  can  receive  the  attention  his  state  requires.  I  recommend  him 
to  you  in  the  name  of  humanity." 

His  letter  to  Governor  Claiborne  was  in  a  higher  strain  : 

<l  In  the  firm  persuasion  that  the  choice  made  of  you  to  fill  the  office 
of  first  magistrate  of  this  State  was  dictated  by  the  esteem  of  your  fellow- 
citizens,  and  was  conferred  on  merit,  I  confidently  address  you  on  an  affair 
on  which  may  depend  the  safety  of  this  country. 

"  I  offer  to  you  to  restore  to  this  State  several  citizens,  who  perhaps  in 
your  eyes  have  lost  that  sacred  title.  I  offer  you  them,  however,  such  as 
you  could  wish  to  find  them,  ready  to  exert  their  utmost  efforts  in  defense 
of  the  country.  This  point;  of  Louisiana  which  I  occupy  is  of  great  impor 
tance  in  the  present  crisis.  I  tender  my  services  to  defend  it ;  and  the 
only  reward  I  ask  is  that  a  stop  be  put  to  the  proscription  against  me  and 
my  adherents,  by  an  act  of  oblivion  for  all  that  has  been  done  hitherto.  I 
am  the  stray  sheep  wishing  to  return  to  the  sheepfold.  If  you  were 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  my  offenses  I  should  appear 
to  you  much  less  guilty,  and  still  worthy  to  discharge  the  duties  of  a  good 
citizen.  I  have  never  sailed  under  any  flag  but  that  of  the  republic  of 
Carthagena,  and  my  vessels  are  perfectly  regular  in  that  respect.  If  I  could 
have  brought  my  lawful  prizes  into  the  ports  of  this  State  I  should  not  have 
employed  the  illicit  means  that  have  caused  me  to  be  proscribed.  I  de 
cline  saying  more  on  the  subject  until  I  have  the  honor  of  your  excellency's 
answer,  which  I  am  persuaded  can  be  dictated  only  by  wisdom.  Should 
your  answer  not  be  favorable  to  my  ardent  desires,  I  declare  to  you  that  I 
will  instantly  leave  the  country,  to  avoid  the  imputation  of  having  coop- 


1814.]        THE     DEEP    GAME     OF    JEAN     LAFITTE.          589 

crated  toward  an  invasion  on  this  point  which  can  not  fail  to  take  place, 
and  to  rest  secure  in  the  acquittal  of  my  own  conscience." 

Upon  the  reception  of  these  letters  Governor  Claiborne 
called  a  council  of  officers  of  the  army,  navy,  and  militia,  and 
laid  the  documents  before  them,  with  the  requisite  explanations. 
The  letters,  which  gave  those  sapient  counselors  the  first  de 
finite  and  reliable  information  of  the  impending  invasion, 
produced  an  effect  as  different  as  possible  from  that  which 
Lafitte  had  anticipated.  Governor  Claiborne  asked  their 
opinion  on  two  points  : 

First.    Are  the  letters  genuine  ? 

Secondly.  Is  it  fit  that  the  Governor  of  Louisiana 
should  hold  intercourse  with  the  Lafittes  and  their  asso 
ciates  ? 

Full  of  the  scheme  then  on  foot  for  breaking  up  the  es 
tablishment  at  Barrataria,  and  not  inclined  to  lose  an  ad 
venture  that  was  sure  to  be  pleasant,  and  might  be  profitable, 
the  council  concluded  that  the  letters  were  forged  ;  that  La- 
fitte's  story  was  an  invention,  and  the  whole  a  plan  to  deliver 
Dominique  from  captivity,  and  avert  the  threatened  attack 
upon  Barrataria.  Governor  Claiborne  did  not  coincide  in 
this  opinion,  nor  did  General  Vilere  of  the  militia  ;  but  it 
prevailed.  And  thus  it  was  that  the  only  effect,  so  far  as  the 
authorities  at  New  Orleans  were  concerned,  of  Jean's  honor 
able  and  patriotic  conduct,  was  to  hasten  the  departure  of 
Commodore  Patterson's  expedition  !  No,  not  the  only  effect ; 
for  Governor  Claiborne  took  the  precaution  to  send  copies  of 
the  letters  and  papers  to  General  Jackson. 

Jean  Lafitte,  meanwhile,  little  foreseeing  the  result  of  his 
zealous  endeavors,  continued  to  give  proof  upon  proof  of  his 
attachment  to  the  United  States,  and  of  his  strong  desire  to 
atone  for  the  past.  A  few  days  after  Captain  Lockyer's  de 
parture,  an  anonymous  letter  from  Havana  fell  into  the  hands 
of  Lafitte,  which  confirmed  Lockyer's  statements  in  every  par 
ticular,  and  called  on  all  Americans  residing  on  the  Gulf  to  pre 
pare  for  an  overwhelming  invasion.  This  letter  was  promptly 

VOL.  i.— 38 


590  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

forwarded  to  New  Orleans.  On  the  10th  of  September,  Pierre 
Lafitte,  the  eldest  of  the  three  brothers,  who  had  been  absent 
during  Lockyer's  visit,  returned  to  Barrataria.  He,  too,  wrote 
to  Governor  Claiborne,  approving  all  that  his  brother  had  done 
"under  such  difficult  circumstances,"  and  declaring  that  he 
was  "  fully  determined  to  follow  the  plan  that  may  reconcile 
us  with  the  government." 

All  in  vain.  On  the  llth  of  September,  Commodore  Pat 
terson  sailed  for  Barrataria,  which  he  reached  on  the  16th, 
and  answered  the  letters  of  Jean  and  Pierre  Lafitte  by  seizing 
nine  of  their  vessels,  taking  prisoners  many  of  their  men,  and 
destroying  their  establishment.  The  Lafittes  escaped,  but 
Barrataria  was  no  more.  Punctually,  on  the  fifteenth  day, 
Captain  Lockyer  returned,  and  thundered  with  his  signal 
guns,  at  intervals,  for  forty-eight  hours.  But  no  boat  an 
swered  his  summons.  Concluding  that  Lafitte  had  played 
him  false,  and  fearing  to  fall  into  a  trap  if  he  sent  a  boat  to 
reconnoiter,  he  sailed  away — soon  to  reappear  in  those  waters, 
and  play  a  gallant  part  in  the  tragic  drama  about  to  open. 

Fortunately,  the  communications  of  the  Lafittes,  and  the 
papers  which  accompanied  them,  were  soon  made  public  in 
New  Orleans.  They  made  an  impression  upon  the  popular 
mind  very  different  from  that  which  they  had  produced  upon 
the  official  understanding.  Edward  Livingston,  the  master 
spirit  of  the  American  population,  knew  the  Lafittes  too  well 
to  adopt  the  ruse  theory  for  a  moment ;  and,  through  his  in 
fluence  chiefly,  the  efforts  of  the  privateer  chiefs  were  turned 
to  account  in  rousing  the  people  of  Louisiana  to  a  sense  of 
their  danger  and  of  their  duty. 


1814.]  AN     EYE     ON     FLORIDA.  591 

CHAPTER     LV. 

GENERAL     JACKSON     HAS     AN     EYE     ON     FLORIDA. 

IT  may  have  surprised  the  reader  that  a  commander  so 
remarkable  for  celerity  of  movement  as  General  Jackson 
should  have  lingered  a  whole  month  at  the  junction  of  the 
Coosa  and  Tallapoosa,  concluding  a  treaty  with  the  Creeks. 
But  that  was  by  no  means  his  principal  employment  there, 
as  shall  now  be  shown. 

All  that  summer  he  had  had  a  watchful,  and  frequently 
a  wrathful  eye  on  Florida.  That  the  flying  Bed  Sticks  should 
have  been  afforded  a  refuge  in  that  province,  first  moved  him 
to  anger  ;  for  it  was  the  nature  of  Andrew  Jackson  to  finish 
whatever  he  undertook.  He  went,  as  Colonel  Benton  often 
remarked,  for  "  a  clean  victory  or  a  clean  defeat."  As  long 
as  there  was,  anywhere  on  earth,  one  Creek  maintaining  an 
attitude  of  hostility  against  the  United  States,  he  felt  his 
work  incomplete,  and  regarded  any  man,  or  governor,  as  an 
enemy  who  gave  that  solitary  warrior  aid  and  comfort.  Being 
a  man  with  less  of  the  spirit  of  the  Circumlocution  Office  in 
him  than  any  other  individual  then  extant ;  a  man,  in  fact, 
with  not  a  shred  of  red  tape  in  his  composition,  the  im 
pulse  of  his  mind  was  to  march  straight  into  the  heart  of 
Florida,  and  extinguish  the  hostile  remnant  of  the  Creeks 
without  more  ado  That,  however,  was  a  measure  of  which 
he  was  not  ready  to  assume  the  whole  responsibility  yet. 

Even  on  his  way  from  the  Hermitage  to  Fort  Jackson,  a 
rumor  reached  his  ears  that  a  British  vessel  was  at  Appala- 
chicola,  landing  arms  for  distribution  among  the  Indians. 
His  first  act,  therefore,  on  arriving  at  the  treaty  ground, 
was  to  select,  by  the  aid  of  Colonel  Hawkins,  some  trust 
worthy  Indians  to  send  to  Appalachicola,  to  ascertain  what 
was  going  on  there.  Before  they  returned,  a  piece  of  very 
tangible  evidence  of  the  truth  of  the  rumor  reached  him  in 


592  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

the  form  of  a  new  musket,  of  English  manufacture,  which 
had  been  given  to  a  Creek  of  the  peace  party  by  a  friend  of 
his  at  Appalachicola,  only  a  week  before.  We  can  imagine 
the  feelings  and  the  manner  of  Jackson  as  he  handled,  ex 
amined,  and  descanted  upon  this  shining  weapon.  The 
owner  of  the  musket,  upon  being  questioned,  stated  that  a 
party  of  British  troops  were  at  Appalachicola,  giving  out 
arms  and  ammunition  to  all  of  the  hostile  Indians  that  ap 
plied  for  them. 

Then  it  was  that  Jackson  began  dimly  to  foresee  the 
work  he  was  destined  to  do  in  the  South-west.  He  wrote  in 
stantly  to  Governor  Claiborne.  "  This  morning,"  wrote  he 
to  the  governor,  (July  21st,)  "  I  was  presented  with  a  new 
British  musket,  given  to  a  friendly  Indian  by  those  at  Appa 
lachicola  bay.  Information  has  been  received  by  this  fellow 
tending  to  confirm  the  rumor  of  a  considerable  force  having 
landed  there  with  a  large  quantity  of  arms  and  other  muni 
tions  of  war,  and  with  intentions  to  strike  a  decisive  blow 
against  the  lower  country.  Mobile  and  Orleans  are  of  such 
importance  as  to  hold  out  strong  inducements  to  them.  At 
such  a  crisis,  I  must  look  to  the  constitutional  authorities 
of  the  State  of  Louisiana  for  such  support  as  will  be  effective 
in  any  emergency,  and  I  trust  this  support  will  be  afforded 
with  promptitude  whenever  required/' 

Governor  Claiborne,  after  receiving  this  letter,  issued  a 
long  address  to  the  militia  of  Louisiana,  ordering  them  to  be 
in  readiness  for  active  service,  but  expressing  utter  incredulity 
as  to  the  designs  of  the  British  upon  Louisiana.  The  pro 
ject  of  wrestling  Louisiana  from  the  United  States,  he  said, 
was  too  "  chimerical"  to  have  been  "  seriously  contemplated." 
"  That  the  bare  rumor  of  such  a  design,"  he  added,  "  should 
awaken  some  anxiety,  is  cause  of  no  surprise." 

In  fifteen  days  the  friendly  Indians  returned  to  Fort  Jack 
son,  confirming  the  testimony  of  the  new  musket  and  its  pro 
prietor.  Soon  came  rumors  that  a  large  force  of  British  were 
expected  at  Pensacola,  and,  at  length,  positive  information  of 
the  landing  of  Colonel  Nichols,  of  the  welcome  he  had  re- 


1814.]  AN    EYE    ON    FLOEIDA.  593 

ceived  from  the  Spanish  governor,  and  of  his  extraordinary 
proceedings. 

Florida  delenda  est  was  thenceforth  the  burthen  of  Gen 
eral  Jackson's  secret  thoughts,  communicated  only  to  two  or 
three  of  his  most  confidential  officers.  Florida  delenda  est 
was  the  burthen  of  his  letters  to  the  Secretary  of  War.  "  If 
the  hostile  Creeks,"  he  wrote  to  the  Secretary,  "  have  taken 
refuge  in  Florida,  and  are  there  fed,  clothed,  and  protected  ; 
if  the  British  have  landed  a  large  force,  munitions  of  war, 
and  are  fortifying  and  stirring  up  the  savages  ;  will  you  only 
say  to  me,  raise  a  few  hundred  militia,  which  can  be  quickly 
done,  and  with  such  regular  force  as  can  be  conveniently  col 
lected,  make  a  descent  upon  Pensacola,  and  reduce  it  ?  If  so, 
I  promise  you  the  war  in  the  South  shall  have  a  speedy  ter 
mination,  and  English  influence  be  for  ever  destroyed  with  the 
savages  in  this  quarter." 

The  answer  of  Secretary  Armstrong  to  this  letter,  whether 
from  accident  or  design  will  never  be  known,  was  six  months 
on  its  way  from  Washington  to  the  hands  of  General  Jack 
son.  It  reached  him  at  New  Orleans,  when  the  campaign 
and  the  war  were  over.  It  gave  him  all  the  authority  he  de 
sired.  "  The  case  you  put,"  wrote  the  Secretary  of  War,  "  is 
a  very  strong  one  ;  and  if  all  the  circumstances  stated  by  you 
unite,  the  conclusion  is  irresistible.  It  becomes  our  duty  to 
carry  our  arms  where  we  find  our  enemies.  It  is  believed, 
and  I  am  so  directed  by  the  President  to  say,  that  there  is  a 
disposition  on  the  part  of  the  Spanish  government,  not  to 
break  with  the  United  States,  nor  to  encourage  any  conduct 
on  the  part  of  her  subordinate  agents  having  a  tendency  to 
such  rupture.  We  must,  therefore,  in  this  case,  be  careful  to 
ascertain  facts,  and  even  to  distinguish  what,  on  the  part  of 
the  Spanish  authorities,  may  be  the  effect  of  menace  and 
compulsion,  or  of  their  choice  and  policy  ;  the  result  of  this 
inquiry  must  govern.  If  they  admit,  feed,  arm,  and  coope 
rate  with  the  British  and  hostile  Indians,  we  must  strike  on 
the  broad  principle  of  self-preservation  ;  under  other  and 
different  circumstances  we  must  forbear." 


594  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

What  more  could  Jackson  have  wished  ?  "If  this  let 
ter/'  he  would  say  in  after  years,  "  or  any  hint  that  such  a 
course  would  have  been  even  winked  at  by  the  government,  had 
been  received,  it  would  have  been  in  my  power  to  have  captured 
the  British  shipping  in  the  bay.  I  would  have  marched  at 
once  against  Barrancas,  and  carried  it,  and  thus  prevented 
any  escape  ;  but,  acting  on  my  own  responsibility  against  a 
neutral  power,  it  became  essential  for  me  to  proceed  with 
more  caution  than  my  judgment  or  wishes  approved,  and  con 
sequently  important  advantages  were  lost,  which  might  have 
been  secured."* 

Left  thus  to  act  without  instructions,  Jackson  resorted  to 
the  expedient  which  he  always  adopted  when  he  was  power 
less  to  do  any  thing  else  ;  he  wrote  to  Maurequez,  the  Gov 
ernor  of  Pensacola.  He  told  the  governor  what  he  had  heard 
of  the  proceedings  at  Appalachicola  and  Pensacola  ;  asked 
him  why  the  enemies  of  the  United  States  were  aided  and 
protected  in  a  territory  claimed  to  be  neutral  in  the  war,  and 
friendly  to  the  United  States  ;  requested  him  to  state  whether 
the  facts  were  as  he  had  represented  them  ;  a*nd,  finally,  de 
manded  the  surrender  of  such  of  the  hostile  Creek  chiefs  as 
were  at  Pensacola. 

The  governor's  answer,  written  with  the  hauteur  of  a 
grandee,  evaded  these  direct  questions.  The  governor  said 
he  would  feed,  clothe  and  protect  his  Indians,  without  con 
sidering  the  wishes  of  General  Jackson,  who  would  shortly 
hear  more  from  him.  This  letter  exasperated  the  General 
nearly  to  the  fighting  point  ;  but  it  was  one  of  the  many 
contradictory  peculiarities  of  that  most  irascible  of  men,  never 
to  indulge  his  anger  till  he  could  make  it  cooperate  with  his 
prudence — till  he  could  insure  it  victory.  He  wrote  again  to 
the  lofty  governor,  repeating  his  demands  more  peremptorily, 
and  arguing  the  case  more  at  length.  This  letter  he  intrusted 
to  Captain  Gordon,  the  famous  and  eccentric  spy  captain  of 
the  Creek  war,  who  was  empowered  to  converse  with  the  gov- 

*  Eaton. 


1814.]  AN     EYE     ON     FLORIDA.  595 

ernor,  and  directed  to  obtain  from  him,  if  possible,  some  ex 
plicit  information  as  to  his  designs. 

Captain  Gordon  proceeded  alone  to  Pensacola,  where  he 
saw  the  British  fleet  in  the  harbor,  the  British  flag  floating 
from  the  fort,  Colonel  Nichols  quartered  with  the  governor, 
Captain  Woodbine  drilling  his  ridiculous  regiment  of  Indians 
in  the  public  square,  and  Governor  Maurequez  on  the  most 
cordial  footing  with  his  new  friends.  The  latter  potentate 
was  at  first  inclined  to  dismiss  Captain  Gordon  without 
deigning  any  reply  ;  but,  after  detaining  the  ambassador  for 
some  days,  he  concluded  to  bestow  upon  the  impertinent  and 
peremptory  General  Jackson  an  epistle  that  should  finally 
quench  him. 

As  to  the  Creek  chiefs,  said  the  Governor,  whom  General 
Jackson  demanded,  they  were  not  then  with  him,  and,  there 
fore,  he  could  not  give  them  up.  Nor  could  he,  without  vio 
lating  the  laws  of  common  hospitality,  have  refused  them  aid 
in  their  distress.  Their  surrender,  he  believed,  would  be  in 
open  violation  of  the  law  of  nations,  to  which  the  King  of 
Spain  had  always  strictly  adhered  ;  of  which  he  had  given 
the  United  States  a  recent  and  conspicuous  proof,  in  not  de 
manding  the  surrender  of  the  traitors,  insurgents,  incendiaries 
and  assassins,  whom  the  American  government  had  counte 
nanced  in  fomenting  revolutions  and  lighting  the  flames  of 
discord  in  the  Spanish  provinces.  The  governor,  moreover, 
protested  against  the  recent  cession  of  the  Creek  territory  on 
the  Alabama,  as  an  act  done  without  the  concurrence  of  the 
tribe.  With  regard  to  the  presence  of  British  forces  in  Flor 
ida,  was  not  General  Jackson  aware  that  there  existed  a  treaty 
between  England  and  the  Creek  nation,  as  well  as  one  be 
tween  Spain  and  the  Creeks  ?  "  But,"  added  the  governor, 
"  turn  your  eyes  to  the  island  of  Barrataria,  and  you  will  there 
perceive  that  within  the  very  territory  of  the  United  States, 
pirates  are  sheltered  and  protected,  with  the  manifest  design 
of  committing  hostilities  by  sea,  upon  the  merchant  vessels  of 
Spain  ;  and  with  such  scandalous  notoriety,  that  the  cargoes 
of  our  vessels  taken  by  them  have  been  publicly  sold  in  Loui- 


596  LIFE     OF      ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

siana."  The  governor  concluded  by  remarking  upon  General 
Jackson's  last  letter,  which,  he  intimated,  was  not  couched  in 
the  polite  and  respectful  terms  that  should  alone  be  employed 
in  correspondence  between  officers  of  friendly  governments. 

This  letter  needed  no  reply  in  words  ;  but  the  writing  of 
a  reply  furnished  an  opportunity  of  airing  his  antipathy  to 
Spanish  governors,  which  G-eneral  Jackson  could  not  neglect. 
If  there  was  any  subject  upon  which  he  could  write  with 
point  and  force,  it  was  one  which  he  was  wont  to  sum  up  in 
the  favorite  and  comprehensive  phrase,  "  Spanish  treachery/' 
His  answer  to  Maurequez,  on  this  occasion  is  too  character 
istic  of  the  man  to  be  omitted  or  abbreviated. 

"  Were  I  clothed,"  he  began,  "  with  diplomatic  powers, 
for  the  purpose  of  discussing  the  topics  embraced  in  the  wide 
range  of  injuries  of  which  you  complain,  and  which  have 
long  since  been  adjusted,  I  could  easily  demonstrate  that  the 
United  States  have  been  always  faithful  to  their  treaties  ; 
steadfast  in  their  friendships  ;  nor  have  ever  claimed  any 
thing  that  was  not  warranted  by  justice.  They  have  endured 
many  insults  from  the  governors  and  other  officers  of  Spain, 
which,  if  sanctioned  by  their  sovereign,  amounted  to  acts  of 
war,  without  any  previous  declaration  on  the  subject.  They 
have  excited  the  savages  to  war,  and  afforded  them  the  means 
of  waging  it.  The  property  of  our  citizens  has  been  captured 
at  sea,  and  if  compensation  has  not  been  refused,  it  has  at 
least  been  withheld.  But  as  no  such  powers  have  been  dele 
gated  to  me,  I  shall  not  assume  them,  but  leave  them  to  the 
representatives  of  our  respective  governments. 

"  I  have  the  honor  of  being  intrusted  with  the  command 
of  this  district.  Charged  with  its  protection,  and  the  safety 
of  its  citizens,  I  feel  my  ability  to  discharge  the  task,  and 
trust  your  excellency  will  always  find  me  ready  and  willing 
to  go  forward  in  the  performance  of  that  duty,  whenever  cir 
cumstances  shall  render  it  necessary.  I  agree  with  you,  per 
fectly,  that  candor  and  polite  language  should,  aj  all  times, 
characterize  the  communications  between  the  officers  of 
friendly  sovereignties  ;  and  I  assert,  without  the  fear  of  con- 


1814.]  AN     EYE     ON     FLORIDA.  597 

tradiction,  that  my  former  letters  were  couched  in  terms  the 
most  respectful  and  unexceptionable.  I  only  requested,  and 
did  not  demand,  as  you  asserted,  the  ringleaders  of  the  Creek 
confederacy,  who  had  taken  refuge  in  your  town,  and  who 
had  violated  all  laws,  moral,  civil,  and  divine.  This  I  had  a 
right  to  do,  from  the  treaty  which  I  sent  you,  and  which  I 
now  again  inclose,  with  a  request  that  you  will  change  your 
translation ;  believing,  as  I  do,  that  your  former  one  was 
wrong,  and  has  deceived  you. 

"  What  kind  of  an  answer  you  returned,  a  reference  to 
your  letter  will  explain.  The  whole  of  it  breathes  nothing 
but  hostility,  grounded  upon  assumed  facts,  and  false  charges, 
and  entirely  evading  the  inquiries  that  had  been  made. 

"I  can  but  express  my  astonishment  at  your  protest 
against  the  cession  on  the  Alabama,  lying  within  the  ac 
knowledged  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  and  which  has 
been  ratified,  in  due  form,  by  the  principal  chiefs  and  warriors 
of  the  nation.  But  my  astonishment  subsides,  when,  on  com 
paring  it,  I  find  it  upon  a  par  with  the  rest  of  your  letter  and 
conduct ;  taken  together,  they  afford  a  sufficient  justification 
for  any  consequences  that  may  ensue.  My  government  will 
protect  every  inch  of  her  territory,  her  citizens,  and  her 
property,  from  insult  and  depredation,  regardless  of  the  po 
litical  revolutions  of  Europe ;  and  although  she  has  been  at 
all  times  sedulous  to  preserve  a  good  understanding  with  all 
the  world,  yet  she  has  sacred  rights  that  can  not  be  trampled 
upon  with  impunity.  Spain  had  better  look  to  her  own  in 
testine  commotions,  before  she  walks  forth  in  that  majesty  of 
strength  and  power  which  you  threaten  to  draw  down  upon  the 
United  States.  Your  excellency  has  been  candid  enough  to 
admit  your  having  supplied  the  Indians  with  arms.  In  ad 
dition  to  this,  I  have  learned  that  a  British  flag  has  been  seen 
flying  on  one  of  your  forts.  All  this  is  done  whilst  you  are 
pretending  to  be  neutral. 

u  You  can  not  be  surprised,  then,  but  on  the  contrary  will 
provide  a  fort  in  your  town,  for  my  soldiers  and  Indians, 
should  I  take  it  in  my  head  to  pay  you  a  visit. 


598  LIFE     OF     ANDBEW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

"  In  future,  I  beg  you  to  withhold  your  insulting  charges 
against  my  government,  for  one  more  inclined  to  listen  to 
slander  than  I  am  ;  nor  consider  me  any  more  as  a  diplomatic 
character,  unless  so  proclaimed  to  you  from  the  mouths  of  my 
cannon." 

Thus  ended  the  epistolary  part  of  the  intercourse  between 
General  Jackson  and  Governor  Maurequez.  When  next  they 
took  counsel  together,  there  was  no  occasion  for  writing  ma 
terials. 

The  Secretary  of  War  was  promptly  advised  of  all  these 
events.  Jackson's  letters  to  that  functionary  are  curious  from 
their  total  want  of  the  official  character.  He  lectured  the 
Secretary  ;  he  remonstrated  with  him ;  he  almost  implored 
him  to  sanction  what  the  crisis  required.  On  the  present  oc 
casion,  for  example,  he  held  language  like  this  : — "  How  long 
will  the  United  States  pocket  the  reproach  and  open  insults 
of  Spain  ?  It  is  alone  by  a  manly  and  dignified  course  that 
we  can  secure  respect  from  other  nations,  and  peace  to  our 
own.  Temporizing  policy  is  not  only  a  disgrace,  but  a  curse 
to  any  nation.  It  is  a  fact  that  a  British  captain  of  marines 
is  and  has  for  some  time  past  been  engaged  in  drilling  and 
organizing  the  fugitive  Creeks,  under  the  eye  of  the  governor ; 
endeavoring,  by  his  influence  and  presents,  to  draw  to  his 
standard  as  well  the  peaceable  as  the  hostile  Indians.  If  per 
mission  had  been  given  me  to  march  against  this  place  twenty 
days  ago,  I  would,  ere  this,  have  planted  there  the  American 
eagle;  now,  we  must  trust  alone  to  our  valor,  and  to  the 
justice  of  our  cause." 

It  required  six  or  seven  weeks  at  that  time  for  an  express 
to  travel  from  Fort  Jackson  to  Washington  and  return  with 
an  answer.  Before  six  or  seven  weeks  rolled  by  after  the 
dispatch  of  the  letter  just  quoted,  what  events  had  trans 
pired  ! 

Colonel  Nichols,  taking  no  precautions  whatever  to  con 
ceal  his  designs,  but  rather  courting  publicity,  General  Jack 
son  was  kept  well  informed  of  what  was  transpiring  in  Florida. 
Early  in  September  it  was  noised  about  in  Pensacola,  and 


1814.]  AN     EYE     ON     FLORIDA.  599 

soon  reported  to  General  Jackson,  that  Colonel  Nichols  had 
hostile  designs  upon  Mobile.  The  General's  mind,  from  that 
moment,  was  made  up.  He  would  dally  no  longer  with  a 
Secretary  of  War  a  month  distant ;  he  would  take  the  re 
sponsibility  ;  he  would  fight  the  southern  campaign  himself, 
as  best  he  could,  orders  or  no  orders.  Already  he  had  writ 
ten  to  the  governors  of  Tennessee,  Louisiana,  and  Mississippi, 
urging,  them  to  complete  the  organization  of  their  militia ; 
"for/'  said  he,  "  there  is  no  telling  when  or  where  the  spoiler 
may  come."  "  Dark  and  heavy  clouds,"  he  said  in  another 
letter,  "  hover  around  us.  The  energy  and  patriotism  of  the 
citizens  of  your  States  must  dispel  them.  Our  rights,  our 
liberties,  and  free  Constitution,  are  threatened.  This  noble 
patrimony  of  our  fathers  must  be  defended  with  the  best 
blood  of  our  country :  to  do  this,  you  must  hasten  to  carry 
into  effect  the  requisition  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  call 
forth  your  troops  without  delay." 

On  the  9th  of  September,  Colonel  Butler,  Jackson's  ad 
jutant  general,  who  had  been  sent  to  Tennessee  to  hasten  the 
organization  of  the  new  levies  in  that  State,  received  the  wel 
come  order  from  Jackson  to  call  out  the  troops,  and  march 
them,  .with  all  dispatch,  southward  toward  Mobile.  The  call 
was  obeyed  with  far  greater  alacrity  than  that  of  the  last  year, 
when  the  massacre  of  Fort  Mims  was  to  be  avenged.  Gen 
eral  Coffee  was  promptly  in  the  field  once  more.  Such  was 
the  eagerness  of  the  Tennesseeans  to  share  a  campaign  with 
General  Jackson,  that  considerable  sums,  ranging  from  thirty 
to  eighty  dollars,  were  paid  for  the  privilege  of  being  substi 
tutes  for  those  who  could  not  go.  On  the  appointed  day,  two 
thousand  men  appeared  at  the  rendezvous,  well  armed  and 
equipped,  ready  to  march  with  General  Coffee,  four  hundred 
miles,  to  the  scene  of  expected  combat.  At  the  same  time 
a  small  body  of  recruits  for  the  regular  army  set  out  from 
Nashville  toward  Mobile.  Colonel  Butler,  as  soon  as  he  had 
completed  his  business  in  Tennessee,  hurried  forward  to  con 
duct  to  the  same  place  the  forces  stationed  at  the  posts  which, 
had  been  established  during  the  late  Creek  war. 


600  LIFE     OF     ANDREW    JACKSON.  [1814. 

There  was  no  lingering  on  the  way.  By  swift  marches, 
from  various  points,  the  whole  available  force  of  Tennessee 
was  pouring  southward,  through  the  wilds  of  Alabama,  past 
the  Creek  battle  fields,  and  along  the  familiar  rivers  that 
spoke  of  Jackson  and  of  victory.  The  troops  left  Tennessee 
about  the  1st  of  October.  The  hot  season  was  gone  by  ;  the 
sickly  days  of  early  autumn  were  nearly  over ;  the  weather  was 
beginning  to  be  .as  bracing  as  it  was  pleasant  ;  and  the  later 
rains  had  not  yet  flooded  the  streams  and  softened  the  soil. 
Flushed  with  expectation,  confident  in  themselves,  their 
leader  and  their  cause,  the  men  made  a  merry  tramp  of  it 
down  through  the  Creek  wilderness,  and  a  merrier  camping 
out  when  the  day's  march  was  done.  All  this  marching  and 
careless  merriment  was  made  possible  through  the  complete 
ness  of  General  Jackson's  subjugation  of  the  Creeks.  The 
Creek  country  was  as  safe  to  the  white  man  then  as  the  lawn 
of  the  Hermitage.  Jackson  first  opened  the  road  ;  then  he 
used  it. 


CHAPTER    LVI. 

COLONEL   NICHOLS   AND  CAPTAIN   PERCY  VISIT   MOBILE  POINT. 

MOBILE,  that  is  now  a  city  of  thirty  thousand  inhabitants, 
and  boasts  a  daily  export  of  two  thousand  bales  of  cotton, 
yielding  the  precedence  among  the  cotton  marts  of  the  world 
only  to  its  great  neighbor,  New  Orleans,  was  an  insignificant 
village  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  houses  when  Jackson  arrived 
there  to  defend  it  in  the  latter  part  of  August,  1814.  Like 
Pensacola,  it  derived  whatever  importance  it  had  from  the 
bay  at  the  head  of  which  it  was  situated,  and  the  great  river 
system  of  which  that  bay  is  the  outlet. 

The  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  is  curiously  adapted  by 
nature  for  the  purposes  of  defense.  Broad,  lake-like  bays 


1814.]  VISIT      TO      MOBILE      POINT.  601 

protect  some  parts  of  the  coast  by  their  shallowness.  The 
bays  into  which  the  rivers  flow  have  a  general  resemblance  to 
the  bay  of  Mobile,  which  runs  up  thirty  miles  inland,  and  has 
an  average  breadth  of  twelve  miles.  A  cluster  of  small,  low 
islands  lie  off  the  entrance  to  this  fine  sheet  of  water,  and  a 
long  strip  of  an  island  slants  across  the  entrance,  serving  as  a 
breakwater  to  the  mighty  billows  of  the  Gulf,  and  rendering 
the  bay  at  once  safe,  easily  defended,  and  difficult  of  access. 
A  long,  low,  sandy  peninsula  reaches  out  from  the  mainland 
toward  this  island,  and  terminates  in  Mobile  Point,  close  to 
which  runs  the  narrow  channel,  and  the  only  channel  by 
which  vessels  of  any  magnitude  can  enter  the  bay.  Place 
twenty  well-served  and  well-protected  pieces  of  cannon  upon 
Mobile  Point,  and  you  are  master  of  a  hundred  miles  of  Gulf 
coast,  of  Mobile,  and  of  all  that  fertile  region  watered  by  the 
great  rivers  that  unite  to  flow  into  Mobile  Bay.  It  was1  as 
lonely,  silent  and  desolate  a  shore,  down  there  at  the  mouth 
of  the  bay,  as  ever  disheartened  an  invading  host. 

When  General  Jackson  reached  Mobile,  he  found  it  little 
better  prepared  for  defense  against  any  but  an  Indian  foe 
than  if  war  were  unknown  to  the  civilized  part  of  man 
kind.  There  were  some  block  houses  and  stockades  in  the 
town,  but  no  structure  that  could  resist  artillery.  Nor  indeed 
was  there  need  of  any  ;  for  the  place  was  to  be  defended  or 
lost  at  Mobile  Point,  thirty  miles  down  the  bay.  If  Colonel 
Nichols  and  Captain  Percy  had  touched  at  the  Point  on  their 
way  to  Pensacola,  and  landed  two  hundred  men  there,  they 
would  have  given  General  Jackson  much  more  trouble  than 
they  did.  There  was  nothing  to  hinder  their  doing  so  at  the 
time. 

To  Mobile  Point  Jackson  repaired  soon  after  his  arrival 
at  Mobile.  There  he  found  the  remains  of  that  fortification 
which  will  be  known  to  posterity  as  Fort  Bowyer,  though  the 
name  has  since  been  most  unpatriotically  and  immorally 
changed  to  Fort  Morgan.  Incomplete,  and  yet  falling  into 
ruin,  without  a  bombproof,  and  mounting  but  two  twenty- 
four  pounders,  six  twelves,  and  twelve  smaller  pieces,  it  was 


602  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

plain  that  Fort  Bowyer  was  Mobile's  chance  of  safety.  It 
had  been  untenanted  for  a  year  or  more,  and  contained  noth 
ing  of  the  means  of  defense  except  cannons  and  cannon  balls. 
For  the  information  of  unprofessional  readers,  it  is  enough  to 
say  that  the  fort  was  a  semicircular  structure,  with  such  ad 
ditional  outworks  as  were  necessary  to  enable  it  to  command 
the  all-important  channel,  the  peninsula  and  the  open  sea. 
It  was  surrounded  by  a  ditch  twenty  feet  wide.  Its  weak 
point  was  similar  to  that  by  which  Fort  Ticonderoga  was 
once  taken  :  it  was  overlooked  by  some  tall  hillocks  of  sand 
within  cannon  range.* 

Into  this  fort  General  Jackson,  with  all  haste,  threw  a 
garrison  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  men,  commanded  by  Major 
Lawrence  of  the  second  regiment  of  United  States  infantry, 
as  gallant  a  spirit  as  ever  stood  to  his  country's  defense.  A 

*  For  the  convenience  of  professional  readers,  a  professional  description  of 
Fort  Bowyer  is  appended,  taken  from  "  Latour's  Historical  Memoir  of  the  War." 
Latour  was  an  engineer,  and  did  good  service  in  this  campaign : — 

"  Fort  Bowyer  is  a  redoubt  formed  on  the  sea  side  by  a  semicircular  battery 
of  four  hundred  feet  in  development,  flanked  with  two  curtains  sixty  feet  in 
length,  and  joined  to  a  bastion  whose  capital  line  passes  through  the  center  of 
the  circular  battery.  This  bastion  has  but  thirty-five  feet  in  its  gorge,  with  two 
flanks,  each  capable  of  receiving  but  one  piece  of  artillery,  and  fifty  feet  in  length 
on  its  front  and  rear  aspects. 

"  Its  interior  dimensions  are  one  hundred  and  eighty  feet  in  length  from  the 
summit  of  the  bastion  to  the  parapet  of  the  circular  battery,  and  two  hundred  feet 
for  the  length  of  the  cord  of  the  arc  described  by  the  battery.  The  receding 
angles  formed  by  the  curtains  with  the  flanks  of  the  bastion  and  those  of  the 
battery,  considerably  diminish  the  dimensions  of  this  fort,  the  superfices  of  which 
may  be  estimated  at  twenty-two  thousand  feet. 

"  The  circular  parts  and  the  flanks  which  join  it  to  the  curtains,  have  a  para 
pet  fifteen  feet  thick  at  the  summit,  and  in  all  the  rest  of  the  perimeter  of  the 
fort,  the  parapet  does  not  exceed  the  thickness  of  three  feet  above  the  platforms ; 
a  fosse  twenty  feet  wide  surrounds  the  fort,  and  a  very  insufficient  glacis  without 
a  covered  way  completes  the  fortification.  The  interior  front  of  the  parapet  is 
formed  of  pine,  a  resinous  wood  which  a  single  shell  would  be  sufficient  to  set 
on  fire.  The  fort  is  destitute  of  casemates  (the  only  shelter  from  bombs)  even 
for  the  sick,  the  ammunition  or  provisions.  To  these  inconveniences  may  be 
added  the  bad  situation  of  the  fort,  commanded  by  several  mounds  of  sand,  as 
above  described,  at  a  distance  of  from  two  to  three  hundred  yards.  On  the  sum 
mit  of  these  mounds,  it  would  be  very  easy  to  mount  pieces  of  artillery,  whose 
slanting  fire  would  command  the  inside  of  the  fort." 


1814.]  VISIT      TO     MOBILE     POINT.  603 

large  proportion  of  the  little  garrison  were  totally  ignorant  of 
gunnery,  and  had  to  learn  the  art  by  practicing  it  in  fighting 
the  enemy.  The  first  twelve  days  in  September  were  em 
ployed  by  them  in  repairing  the  essential  parts  of  the  fortifi 
cation,  while  General  Jackson  was  busy  on  shore  dispatching 
provisions  and  ammunition,  and  counting  over  and  over  again 
the  days  that  must  elapse  before  he  could  reasonably  expect 
the  arrival  of  reinforcements. 

No  signs  of  an  enemy  appeared  till  the  morning  of  the 
12th  of  September,  when  an  out-sentinel  came  running  in 
with  the  report  that  a  body  of  British  marines  and  Indians 
had  landed  on  the  peninsula,  within  a  few  miles  of  the  fort. 
Colonel  Nichols,  it  afterwards  appeared,  was  the  commander 
of  this  detachment,  which  consisted,  according  to  American 
writers,  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  marines  and  six  hundred 
Indians  ;  according  to  James,  the  English  historian,  of  sixty 
marines  and  one  hundred  and  twenty  Indians.  Captain 
Woodbine  commanded  the  Indian  part  of  this  force.  To 
ward  evening  of  the  same  day  four  British  vessels  of  war 
hove  in  sight,  and  came  to  anchor  near  the  coast,  six  miles 
from  the  Point.  These  proved  to  be  the  Hermes,  Captain 
Percy,  twenty-two  guns  ;  the  Sophia,  in  command  of  our 
acquaintance,  Captain  Lockyer,  eighteen  guns ;  the  Carron, 
twenty  guns  ;  and  the  Childers,  eighteen  guns  ;  the  whole 
under  the  command  of  Captain  Percy. 

Night  fell  upon  the  fleet,  the  land  force,  and  the  anxious 
garrison,  without  any  movement  having  been  attempted  on 
either  side.  The  garrison  slept  upon  their  arms,  every  man 
at  his  post. 

The  next  day  a  reconnoitering  party  approached  within 
three  quarters  of  a  mile  and  then  retired.  A  little  after 
noon  Colonel  Nichols  drew  a  howitzer,  the  only  one  he 
had  with  him,  behind  a  mound  seven  hundred  yards  from 
ohe  fort.  He  fired  three  shells  and  a  cannon  ball,  which 
splintered  a  piece  of  timber  that  crowned  part  of  the  ram 
part,  but  did  no  other  damage.  The  garrison,  without  being 
able  to  see  the  enemy,  fired  a  few  shots  in  the  direction  of  the 


604  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

mound.  Under  cover  of  other  sand-hills,  Nichols  then  with 
drew  his  party  to  a  point  a  mile  and  a  half  distant,  where  he 
appeared  to  be  throwing  up  a  breastwork.  Three  well-aimed 
shots  from  the  fort  again  dispersed  the  party,  and  drove  them 
beyond  range,  within  which  they  did  not  return  that  day. 
Later  in  the  afternoon  several  small  boats  put  off  from  the 
ships,  and  attempted  to  sound  the  channel  near  Mobile  Point. 
A  few  discharges  of  ball  and  grape  drove  them  off  also,  and 
they  returned  to  the  ships.  Night  again  closed  in  upon  the 
scene,  and  the  garrison  again  went  to  sleep  upon  their  arms, 
encouraged  and  confident. 

As  soon  as  it  was  light  enough  to  discern  distant  objects 
on  the  following  morning,  the  enemy  were  seen  at  the  same 
place,  still  engaged,  as  it  seemed,  in  throwing  up  works,  the 
ships  remaining  at  their  former  anchorage.  As  the  morning 
wore  away  without  any  further  movement,  Major  Lawrence 
concluding  that  the  enemy  designed  to  take  the  fort  by  regu 
lar  approaches,  thought  it  most  prudent  to  send  an  express 
to  General  Jackson,  informing  him  of  the  enemy's  arrival, 
and  asking  a  reinforcement.  It  so  chanced  that  Jackson  had 
set  out  on  that  very  morning  to  visit  the  fort,  and  had  sailed 
to  within  a  few  miles  of  it  when  he  met  the  boat  bearing  Major 
Lawrence's  messenger.  Back  to  Mobile  he  hurried,  his  barge 
men  straining  every  nerve.  He  reached  the  town  late  at 
night,  where  he  instantly  mustered  a  body  of  eighty  men, 
under  the  command  of  Captain  Laval,  hurried  them  on 
board  a  small  brig,  and  saw  them  off  toward  Mobile  Point 
before  he  left  the  shore.  At  the  fort  the  whole  day  passed 
in  inaction.  Night  came  on  apace,  and  once  more  the  be 
leaguered  garrison  lay  upon  their  arms,  wondering  what  the 
morrow  would  bring  forth. 

Day  dawned  upon  the  15th  of  September.  Straining  eyes 
from  the  summit  of  the  fort  sought  to  penetrate  the  morning 
mist.  Gradually  the  low,  dark  line  of  the  enemy's  bivouac, 
and  then  the  dim  outline  of  the  more  distant  ships  became 
visible.  There  they  were,  unchanged  from  the  day  before. 
Are  we  to  have  another  day,  then,  of  puzzle  and  inactivity  ? 


1814.]  VIST     TO     MOBILE     POINT.  605 

As  the  morning  cleared  it  was  observed  that  there  was  an 
unwonted  stir  and  movement  among  the  enemy.  There  was  a 
marching  hither  and  thither  upon  the  peninsula  ;  boats  were 
passing  and  repassing  between  the  shore  and  the  ships  ;  and 
all  those  nameless  indications  were  noticed  which  announce 
that  something  absorbing  and  decisive  is  on  foot.  There  is  a 
magnetism  in  the  very  air  on  such  occasions  which  conveys 
an  intimation  of  coming  events  to  the  high-strained  nerves 
of  belligerent  men.  Still,  hour  after  hour  passed  on,  and  the 
ships  lay  at  anchor,  and  the  busy  troops  upon  the  shore  made 
no  advance. 

An  hour  before  noon  the  wind,  which  had  been  fresh,  fell 
to  a  light  breeze,  favorable  for  a  movement  of  the  squadron. 
The  ships  now  weighed  anchor,  and  stood  out  to  sea  ;  the 
little  garrison  looking  out  over  the  ramparts  and  through  the 
port-holes  with  an  interest  that  no  human  being,  who  has 
never  taken  part  in  such  a  scene,  can  begin  to  imagine.  For 
nearly  three  hours  the  ships  beat  up  against  the  light  wind, 
away  from  the  fort,  till  they  were  hull-down  in  the  blue  Grulf. 
Have  they  given  it  up,  then,  without  a  trial  ?  At  two  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  they  were  observed  to  tack,  get  before  the 
wind,  and  bear  down  toward  the  fort  in  line  of  battle,  the 
Hermes  leading.  The  suspense  was  over.  They  were  going 
to  attack  !  In  two  hours  they  will  be  upon  us  ! 

Then  Major  Lawrence,  in  the  true  spirit  of  a  classical 
hero,  called  his  officers  together  to  concert  the  requisite 
measures.  "  DON'T  GIVE  UP  THE  FORT,"  was  adopted  as  the 
signal  for  the  day,  and  it  did  but  express  the  unanimous  feel 
ing  of  the  garrison.  The  officers,  while  agreeing  to  defend 
the  fort  as  long  as  it  was  tenable,  defined,  also,  the  terms 
upon  which  alone  the  survivors  should  surrender.  These 
were  the  words  of  their  resolution,  deliberately  concluded  upon 
while  the  fleet  was  approaching,  and  the  force  on  the  penin 
sula  was  preparing  for  simultaneous  attack  : — 

"  That  in  case  of  being,  by  imperious  necessity,  compelled 
to  surrender  (which  could  only  happen  in  the  last  extremity, 
on  the  ramparts  being  entirely  battered  down,  and  the  gar- 
VOL.  i. — 39 


606  LIFE    OF     ANDREW    JACKSON.  [1814. 

rison  almost  wholly  destroyed,  so  that  any  further  resistance 
would  be  evidently  useless),  no  capitulation  should  be  agreed 
on,  unless  it  had  for  its  fundamental  article  that  the  officers 
and  privates  should  retain  their  arms  and  their  private  prop 
erty,  and  that  on  no  pretext  should  the  Indians  be  suffered 
to  commit  any  outrage  on  their  persons  or  property  ;  and 
unless  full  assurance  were  given  them  that  they  would  be 
treated  as  prisoners  of  war,  according  to  the  custom  estab 
lished  among  civilized  nations."* 

The  officers  ratified  this  resolution  by  an  oath,  each 
man  solemnly  swearing  to  abide  by  it  in  any  an<J  every  ex 
tremity.  Now,  every  man  to  his  post,  and  Don't  give  up  the 
Fort  ! 

At  four  o'clock  the  Hermes  came  within  reach  of  the 
fort's  great  guns.  A  few  shots  were  exchanged  with  little 
effect.  One  by  one  the  other  vessels  came  up  and  gave  the 
garrison  some  practice  at  long  range  ;  but  no  great  harm  was 
done  them.  At  half  past  four  Captain  Percy,  like  the  gallant 
sailor  that  he  was,  ran  the  Hermes  right  into  the  narrow 
channel  that  leads  into  the  bay,  dropped  anchor  within 
musket  shot  of  the  fort,  and  turned  his  broadside  to  its  guns. 
The  other  vessels  followed  his  brave  example,  and  anchored 
in  the  channel,  one  behind  the  other,  all  within  reach  of  the 
long  guns  of  the  fort,  though  considerably  more  distant  from 
them  than  the  Hermes. 

Then  arose  a  thundering  cannonade.  Broadside  after 
broadside  from  the  ships  ;  the  fort  replying  by  a  steady, 
quick  fire,  that  was  better  and  better  directed  as  the  fight 
went  on.  Meanwhile  Captain  Woodbine,  from  behind  a 
bluff  in  the  shore,  opened  fire  from  his  howitzer  ;  but  a  few 
shots  from  the  fort's  south  battery  silenced  him,  and  com 
pelled  him,  for  a  time,  to  keep  his  distance. 

For  an  hour  the  firing  continued  on  both  sides  without  a 
moment's  pause ;  the  fleet  and  the  fort  enveloped  in  huge 
volumes  of  smoke,  lighted  up  by  the  incessant  flash  of  the 

*  Eaton. 


1814.]  VISIT     TO     MOBILE     POINT.  607 

guns.  At  half  past  five,  the  halliards  of  the  Hermes'  flag 
were  severed  by  a  shot,  and  the  flag  fell  into  the  hell  of  fire 
and  smoke  below.  Major  Lawrence,  thinking  it  possible  the 
ship  might  have  surrendered,  ceased  his  fire.  A  silence  of 
five  minutes  succeeded  the  dreadful  roar  ;  at  the  expiration  of 
which  a  new  flag  fluttered  up  to  the  mast-head  of  the  com 
modore's  ship,  and  the  Sophia  that  lay  next  her  renewed  the 
strife  by  firing  a  whole  broadside  at  once.  In  the  interval, 
every  gun  in  the  fort  had  been  loaded,  and  the  broadside  was 
returned  with  a  salvo  that  shook  the  earth.  A  most  furious 
firing  succeeded,  and  continued  for  some  time  longer  without 
any  important  mishap  occurring  on  either  side. 

At  length,  a  shot  from  the  fort,  a  lucky  shot  indeed  for 
the  little  garrison,  cut  the  cable  of  the  Hermes  !  The  cur 
rent  of  the  channel  in  which  she  lay  caught  her  heavy  stern, 
and  turned  her  bow-foremost  to  the  fort,  where  she  lay  for 
twenty  minutes  raked  from  bow  to  stern  by  a  terrible  fire. 
At  this  time  it  was  that  the  flag-staff  of  the  fort  was  shot 
away.  The  ships,  it  is  to  be  presumed,  either  because  they 
did  not  perceive  the  absence  of  the  flag,  or  because  they  knew 
the  cause  of  its  absence,  redoubled  their  firing  at  the  moment ; 
while  Captain  Woodbine  and  his  whooping  savages,  supposing 
the  fort  had  surrendered,  ran  up  to  seize  their  prey.  A  few 
discharges  of  grape  drove  the  Indians  howling  back  behind 
the  hillocks  out  of  sight,  and  another  flag,  fastened  hastily  to 
a  sponging  rod,  was  raised  above  the  ramparts. 

The  Hermes,  totally  unmanagable,  her  decks  swept  of 
every  man  and  every  thing,  drifted  slowly  along  with, the 
current  for  half  a  mile,  and  then  ran  aground.  Still  exposed 
to  the  fire,  and  damaged  in  every  part  by  the  hail  of  shot  she 
had  received,  it  was  impossible  either  to  save  or  fight  her. 
Captain  Percy,  therefore,  got  out  his  wounded  men,  trans 
ferred  them  to  the  Sophia,  set  his  ship  on  fire,  and  abandoned 
her  to  her  fate.  Then  the  Sophia,  which  was  also  severely 
crippled,  contrived  with  difficulty  to  get  out  of  range.  The 
two  other  vessels,  which  were  not  seriously  harmed,  hoisted 
sail,  and  departed  to  their  old  anchorage  off  the  coast.  The 


608  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

fort  guns  continued  to  play  upon  the  Hermes  till  dark,  when 
the  fire  burst  through  her  hatches,  and  lighted  up  the  scene 
with  more  than  the  brilliancy  of  day.  At  eleven  o'clock  she 
blew  up  with  an  explosion  that  was  heard  by  General  Jack 
son  at  Mobile,  thirty  miles  distant. 

When  the  next  day  dawned,  Nichols,  Woodbine,  marines, 
Indians,  had  vanished  from  the  peninsula.  The  three  vessels 
were  still  in  sight,  but  early  in  the  afternoon  they  weighed 
anchor,  stood  to  sea,  and  were  seen  no  more. 

Then  the  heroic  little  garrison  came  forth  exulting  from 
their  battered  walls,  surveyed  the  scene  of  the  late  encounter, 
and  reckoned  up  their  victory.  Four  of  their  number  lay  dead 
within  the  fort.  Four  others  were  wounded  in  the  battle.  Six 
men  had  been  injured  by  the  bursting  of  some  cartridges.  Both 
of  the  great  twenty-four  pounders  were  cracked  beyond  using. 
Two  guns  had  been  knocked  off  their  carriages ;  one  had  burst, 
one  had  been  broken  short  off  by  a  thirty-two  pound  ball. 
The  walls  of  the  fort  showed  the  holes  and  marks  of  three 
hundred  balls,  and  the  ground  about  the  fort  was  plowed  into 
ridges.  Though  but  twelve  pieces  had  been  brought  to  bear 
upon  the  fleet,  the  stock  of  cannon  balls  had  been  dimin 
ished  by  seven  hundred.  The  wreck  of  the  gallant  Hermes 
lay  near  by,  her  guns  visible  in  the  clear  water  of  the 
channel. 

The  garrison  were  ignorant,  as  yet,  of  the  name,  the  force, 
and  the  loss  of  the  enemy.  They  knew  not  whence  they  had 
came,  whither  they  were  gone,  nor  how  soon  they  might  re 
turn  in  greater  numbers  to  renew  the  attack.  In  the  course 
of  the  day,  two  marines,  deserters  from  the  party  under  Col 
onel  Nichols  came  in,  and  gave  the  eager  garrison  all  the  in 
formation  they  desired.  They  reported  the  British  loss  at  one 
hundred  and  sixty-two  killed  and  seventy  wounded.  This 
was  an  exaggeration.  The  real  loss  of  the  English,  as  officially 
given  by  themselves,  was  thirty- two  killed  and  forty  wounded. 
Among  the  wounded  was  Colonel  Nichols  himself,  who  lost 
an  eye  in  one  of  his  reconnoiterings.  The  deserters  stated 
that  the  ships  had  returned  to  Pensacola,  leaving  the  marines 


1814.]  VISIT     TOMOBILE     POINT.  609 

and  Indians  to  march  back  to  the  same  place  as  best  they 
could. 

But  where  was  the  brig  with  Captain  Laval's  eighty  men, 
whom  General  Jackson  had  sent  to  reinforce  Fort  Bowyer  ? 
The  adventures  of  that  vessel  were  remarkable,  almost  to  the 
degree  of  being  ludicrous. 

Arriving  in  the  vicinity  of  the  fort  as  the  battle  was  begin 
ning,  and  unable  to  land  his  men  in  such  a  storm  of  cannon 
balls  as  soon  swept  the  peninsula,  Captain  Laval  withdrew 
his  vessel  to  a  sheltered  part  of  the  shore,  a  few  miles  distant, 
intending  to  wait  till  the  darkness  of  the  night  should  enable 
him  to  land  and  march  in.  Unluckily,  he  withdrew  to  too 
remote  a  place  for  him  to  comprehend  the  issue  of  the  strife. 
Night  came,  but  not  darkness.  The  conflagration  that  illu 
mined  the  scene  of  contest  Captain  Laval  concluded  must  be 
the  burning  of  the  resinous  pine  timbers  that  formed  part  of 
the  fortifications.  And  when  the  great  explosion  occurred, 
lifting  the  little  brig  half  out  of  water,  nothing  was  more 
natural  than  for  him  to  suppose  that  the  fort  had  blown  up, 
and  that  the  garrison  was  taken  or  destroyed.  Regarding  the 
capture  of  the  brig  as  inevitable  if  he  remained  where  he  was 
till  daylight,  Laval  hoisted  sail,  and  made  a  swift  voyage  of 
it  back  to  Mobile  and  General  Jackson. 

A  day  of  more  agonizing  anxiety  Jackson  never  passed 
than  the  15th  of  September,  1814.  Compelled  to  remain  in 
active,  knowing  well  the  importance  to  the  campaign  of  the 
result  of  that  day's  work,  aware  of  the  enemy's  superior  force, 
and  of  the  garrison's  inexperience,  he  paced  the  shore  of  Mo 
bile  Bay,  not  without  fear  that  the  next  news  from  the  Point 
would  loom  up  from  the  horizon  in  the  form  of  a  British  fleet 
in  full  sail  toward  the  town.  The  dull  thunder  of  the  explo 
sion  only  told  him  that  something  had  occurred  at  the  mouth 
of  the  bay.  On  the  morning  of  the  16th  the  brig  hove  in 
sight,  and  Laval's  crushing  intelligence  was  soon  reported  to 
the  General.  At  first,  he  would  not  believe  it.  He  declared 
that  the  explosion  had  come  from  the  water,  not  the  shore. 
Yielding,  at  length,  to  the  united  force  of  strong  probability 


610  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

and  positive  testimony,  he  resolved,  on  the  instant,  to  retake 
Mobile  Point  at  every  hazard.  Betaken  it  must  be,  or  the 
campaign  was  lost ;  retaken  it  must  be,  or  the  Greek  war  had 
been  fought  in  vain  ;  retaken  it  must  be,  or  the  arrogant 
boasting  of  a  Maurequez  was  made  good.  The  requisite 
orders  were  issued  ;  the  troops  were  mustering.  And  it  was 
in  the  midst  of  preparation  for  speedy  departure  down  the 
peninsula  that  an  express  arrived  from  Major  Lawrence  with 
the  glorious  truth  of  yesterday's  events,  thrilling  every  heart 
in  Mobile,  and  sending  the  troops  rejoicing  back  to  their 
quarters. 

Well  might  the  General  exult  at  this  well-timed,  auspicious 
victory.  There  was  now  an  inspiring  piece  of  news  to  greet 
and  rouse  each  detachment  of  his  Tennesseeans  as  they  should 
arrive.  The  General  knew  enough  of  the  fickle  Indian  char 
acter  to  be  sure  that  the  prestige  of  the  British  name  among 
the  Creeks  could  not  survive  such  an  unexpected  and  signal 
defeat.  What  a  fortunate  beginning  of  his  career  under  his 
new  commission !  And  what  an  abundant  justification  he 
now  had  for  the  dashing  movement  he  secretly  contemplated  ! 
Every  circumstance  of  the  action  combined  to  make  his  satis 
faction  with  it  perfect.  The  deserters,  whom  Major  Lawrence 
had  sent  with  the  express,  reported  that  Captain  Percy  had 
said  he  would  give  the  fort  twenty  minutes  to  capitulate ; 
and  now  his  own  ship  lay  a  wreck  under  that  fort's  guns, 
while  the  stars  and  stripes  waved  above  the  ramparts  from 
that  immortal  sponging-rod  !  What  did  Maurequez  now 
think  of  his  new  allies,  as  they  crept  back  into  the  harbor 
of  Pensacola,  the  flag-ship  missing,  the  Sophia  damaged, 
Nichols  without  an  eye,  and  Percy  without  a  ship  ?  It 
added  something,  perhaps,  to  the  zest  of  Jackson's  delight 
that  two  of  the  British  naval  commanders  were  the  sons  of 
British  peers  ;  Captain  Percy  the  son  of  Lord  Beverly,  and 
Captain  Spencer  the  son  of  Earl  Spencer. 

A  warm  and  generous  dispatch  the  General  wrote  the 
next  morning  to  the  Secretary  of  War.  "  The  result  of  this 
engagement/'  he  said  in  conclusion,  "  has  stamped  a  charac- 


1814.]  VISIT     TO     MOBILE     POINT.  611 

ter  on  the  war  in  this  quarter  highly  favorable  to  the  Ameri 
can  arms  ;  it  is  an  event  from  which  may  be  drawn  the  most 
favorable  augury.  An  achievement  so  glorious  in  itself,  and 
so  important  in  its  consequences,  should  be  appreciated  by  the 
government ;  and  those  concerned  are  entitled  to,  and  will 
doubtless  receive,  the  most  gratifying  evidence  of  the  appro 
bation  of  their  countrymen.  In  the  words  of  Major  Lawrence, 
'  Where  all  behaved  well,  it  is  unnecessary  to  discriminate/ 
But  all  being  meritorious,  I  beg  leave  to  annex  the  names  of 
the  officers  who  were  engaged  and  present,  and  hope  they 
will  individually  be  deemed  worthy  of  distinction.  Major 
William  Lawrence,  second  infantry,  commanding  ;  Captain 
Walsh  of  the  artillery  ;  Captains  Chamberlain,  Brown-low, 
and  Bradley,  of  the  second  infantry  ;  Captain  Sands,  deputy 
commissary  of  ordnance  ;  Lieutenants  Yillard,  Sturges,  Con- 
way,  H.  Sanders,  T.  R.  Sanders,  Brooks,  Davis,  and  C.  Sand 
ers,  all  of  the  second  infantry.  I  am  confident  that  your  own 
feelings  will  lead  you  to  participate  in  my  wishes  on  the  sub 
ject.  Permit  me  to  suggest  the  propriety  and  justice  of  allow 
ing  to  this  gallant  band  the  value  of  the  vessel  destroyed  by 
them." 

The  defense  of  Fort  Bowyer  produced  the  effect  upon  the 
minds  of  the  people  of  the  Gulf  States  which  might  have  been 
expected.  It  gave  them  confidence  in  themselves  and  in  their 
means  of  defense.  When  the  news  reached  New  Orleans,  the 
Committee  of  Public  Defense,  of  which  Edward  Livingston 
was  the  chairman  and  animating  soul,  voted  a  saber  to  Major 
Lawrence,  and  thanks  to  his  brave  companions  in  victory.* 

*  A  trifling  incident  connected  with  the  attack  on  Fort  Bowyer,  related  by 
Nolte,  in  his  "  Fifty  Years  hi  both  Hemispheres,"  may  serve  to  illustrate  the 
tune  and  scene.  Nolte  was  then  a  cotton  speculator  of  New  Orleans.  He  was 
the  owner,  as  will  be  seen  by  and  by,  of  those  immortal  cotton  bales  which  did 
not  compose  part  of  the  "lines"  on  the  day  of  a  certain  great  battle. 

"  At  Pensacola,"  says  Nolte,  "  Louisiana  cotton  could  not  be  procured  by  the 
English  for  less  than  from  twenty-two  to  twenty-four  cents  per  pound,  while  in 
New  Orleans  it  cost  only  half  that  rate.  Intercourse  was  then  carried  on  be 
tween  the  country  bordering  the  lakes,  and  even  between  New  Orleans  and  Pen 
sacola,  by  means  of  small  craft,  counting  from  ten  to  fifteen  tons,  which  conveyed 


612  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

A  few  days  after  the  affair  of  Fort  Bowyer,  General  Jack 
son  received  from  New  Orleans  the  account  of  Captain  Lock- 
yer's  interview  with  Jean  Lafitte,  and  a  copy  of  Colonel 
Nichols'  proclamation.  The  feelings  which  the  latter  docu 
ment  kindled  in  his  already  excited  mind  may  be  inferred 
from  a  counter-proclamation  which  he  promptly  issued,  and 
sent  flying  over  the  southern  States.  September  21st  was 
the  date  of  this  fiery  composition  : — 

"  LOUISIANIANS — The  base,  the  perfidious  Britons  have  attempted  to  in 
vade  your  country.  They  had  the  temerity  to  attack  Fort  Bowyer  with 
their  incongruous  horde  of  Indian  and  negro  assassins.  They  seemed  to 
have-  forgotten  that  this  fort  was  defended  by  freemen.  They  were  not 
long  indulged  in  this  error.  The  gallant  Lawrence,  with  his  little  Spartan 
band,  has  given  them  a  lecture  that  will  last  for  ages ;  he  has  taught  them 
what  men  can  do  when  fighting  for  their  liberties,  when  contending  against 


flour,  wine,  spirituous  liquors,  etc.,  etc.,  to  and  fro.  The  whole  flotilla  amounted 
to  about  twenty-five  sail.  One  morning  I  chartered  the  larger  of  these,  loaded 
them  with  cotton,  to  the  extent  of  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  bales  in  all, 
and  dispatched  them  to  Mobile  Bay,  there  to  await  my  arrival.  A  day  or  two 
afterwards  I  reached  the  place  in  a  small  empty  schooner,  and  lay  close  to  Fort 
Mobile,  before  which  a  small  English  squadron  was  cruising,  and  at  length 
began  to  make  preparations  for  bombarding  the  fort.  The  attack  came  at  last, 
and  continued,  right  before  my  eyes,  from  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  till 
seven  in  the  evening.  The  little  fort  withstood  the  cannonade  of  five  war  ves 
sels  most  bravely,  and  responded  to  it  with  such  effect  as  evidently  to  occasion 
them  very  great  damage.  I  now  brought  the  whole  of  my  little  flotilla  from 
the  middle  of  the  bay,  close  to  the  fort,  and  waited  in  my  little  clipper  for  the 
retreat  of  the  British  squadron.  "When  this  occurred,  at  sundown,  I  sailed  along- 
close  at  its  heels,  yet  at  a  certain  distance,  and  saw  that  it  bore  direct  for  Pensa- 
cola,  where,  thought  I,  they  would  be  more  likely  to  occupy  themselves  with 
repairing  their  damage  than  in  capturing  small  craft  like  mine.  So  I  returned 
to  the  bay,  hauled  out  my  flotilla,  and,  favored  during  the  night  by  a  cloudless 
moon  and  fair  wind,  brought  it,  by  sunrise,  safe  into  the  harbor  of  Pensacola. 
Here  I  sold  my  cotton  on  the  spot  at  twenty-two  cents  per  pound,  and  in  return 
purchased  three  packs  of  woolen  blankets  at  five  and  a  half  to  six  dollars.  With 
these  I  went  through  Mobile  Bay  and  the  small  lakes  back  to  JSTew  Orleans, 
where  the  blankets  were  worth  from  ten  to  eleven  dollars.  The  proper  period 
for  the  sale  of  that  article  is  in  December,  at  the  beginning  of  the  sugar  crop. 
Everybody  thought  this  little  venture  of  mine  a  pretty  thing,  and  greeted  me  on 
'Change  with,  '  Ah,  you  have  been  to  visit  your  friends,  the  English !'  " 


1814.]  VISIT      TO     MOBILE     POINT.  613 

slaves.  He  has  convinced  Sir  W.  H.  Percy  that  his  companions  in  arms 
are  not  to  be  conquered  by  proclamations ;  that  the  strongest  British  bark 
is  not  invulnerable  to  the  force  of  American  artillery,  directed  by  the  steady 
nervous  arm  of  a  freeman. 

"  Louisianians ! — The  proud  Briton,  the  natural  and  sworn  enemies  of  all 
Frenchmen,  has  called  upon  you,  by  proclamation,  to  aid  him  in  his  tyr 
anny,  and  to  prostrate  the  holy  temple  of  our  liberty.  Can  Louisianians, 
can  Frenchmen,  can  Americans,  ever  stoop  to  be  the  slaves  or  allies  of 
Britain. 

"  The  proud,  vain-glorious  boaster,  Colonel  Nichols,  when  he  addressed 
you,  Louisianians  and  Kentuckians,  had  forgotten  that  you  were  the  vo 
taries  of  freedom,  or  he  would  never  have  pledged  the  honor  of  a  British 
officer  for  the  faithful  performance  of  his  promise,  to  lure  you  from,  your 
fidelity  to  the  government  of  your  choice.  I  ask  you,  Louisianians,  can  we 
place  any  confidence  in  the  honor  of  men  who  have  courted  an  alliance 
with  pirates  and  robbers  ?  Have  not  these  noble  Britons,  these  honorable 
men,  Colonel  Nichols  and  the  Honorable  Captain  W.  H.  Percy,  the  true 
representatives  of  their  royal  master,  done  this  ?  Have  they  not  made 
offers  to  the  pirates  of  Barrataria  to  join  them,  and  their  holy  cause  ? 
And  have  they  not  dared  to  insult  you  by  calling  on  you  to  associate,  as 
brethren,  with  them  and  this  hellish  banditti. 

"  Louisianians ! — The  government  of  your  choice  ^re  engaged  in  a  just 
and  honorable  contest  for  the  security  of  your  individual  and  her  national 
rights.  On  you,  a  part  of  America,  the  only  country  on  earth  where  every 
man  enjoys  freedom,  where  its  blessings  are  alike  extended  to  the  poor  and 
the  rich,  calls  to  protect  these  rights  from  the  invading  usurpation  of  Brit 
ain  ;  and  she  calls  not  in  vain.  I  well  know  that  every  man  whose  soul 
beats  high  at  the  proud  title  of  freeman ;  that  every  Louisianian,  either  by 
birth  or  adoption,  will  promptly  obey  the  voice  of  his  country ;  will  rally 
round  the  eagle  of  Columbia,  secure  it  from  the  pending  danger,  or  nobly 
die  in  the  last  ditch  in  its  defense. 

"  The  individual  who  refuses  to  defend  his  rights,  when  called  upon  by 
his  government,  deserves  to  be  a  slave,  and  must  be  punished  as  an  enemy 
to  his  country,  and  a  friend  to  her  foe. 

"  The  undersigned  has  been  intrusted  with  the  defense  of  your  country. 
On  you  he  relies  to  aid  him  in  this  important  duty;  in  this  reliance  he 
hopes  not  to  be  mistaken.  He  trusts  in  the  justice  of  his  cause  and  the 
patriotism  of  his  countrymen.  Confident  that  any  future  attempt  to  in 
vade  our  soil  will  be  repelled  as  the  last,  he  calls  not  upon  either  pirates 
or  robbers  to  join  him  in  the  glorious  cause. 

"  Your  governor  has  been  fully  authorized  by  me  to  organize  any  vol 
unteer  company,  battalion,  or  regiment  which  may  proffer  its  services 
under  this  call,  and  is  informed  of  their  probable  destination." 


614  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

It  was  a  poor  return  to  the  Lafittes  to  use  the  precious 
information  they  had  given,  and  then  call  them  a  "hellish 
banditti."  Jackson  did  them  justice  a  few  weeks  later,  and 
was  glad  enough  of  their  help  in  the  day  of  trial.  The  sting 
ing  epithets  of  the  proclamation,  however,  sank  deep  into  the 
mind  of  Jean  Lafitte,  and  helped  to  drive  him  afterwards  to 
exile  and  a  watery  grave. 

It  had  been  proposed,  earlier  in  the  war,  to  organize  some 
battalions  of  free  colored  troops,  as  the  British  had  long 
before  done  in  the  West  India  Islands.  The  plan  was  so 
strenuously  objected  to  by  some  of  the  planters,  that  it  was 
given  up.  The  time  had  now  come,  however,  when  General 
Jackson  deemed  it  essential  to  summon  to  the  defense  of  the 
country  its  entire  available  strength.  Hence,  the  proclama 
tion  annexed  : — 

"  To  the  Free  Colored  Inhabitants  of  Louisiana: — Through  a  mistaken 
policy  you  have  heretofore  been  deprived  of  a  participation  in  the  glorious 
struggle  for  national  rights  in  which  our  country  is  engaged.  This  no 
longer  shall  exist. 

"  As  sons  of  freedom,  you  are  now  called  upon  to  defend  our  most 
inestimable  blessing.  As  Americans,  your  country  looks  with  confidence 
to  her  adopted  children,  for  a  valorous  support,  as  a  faithful  return  for  the 
advantages  enjoyed  under  her  mild  and  equitable  government.  As  fathers, 
husbands,  and  brothers,  you  are  summoned  to  rally  round  the  standard  of 
the  eagle  to  defend  all  which  is  dear  in  existence. 

"  Your  country,  although  calling  for  your  exertions,  does  not  wish  you 
to  engage  in  her  cause  without  amply  remunerating  you  for  the  services 
rendered.  Your  intelligent  minds  are  not  to  be  led  away  by  false  repre 
sentations.  Your  love  of  honor  would  cause  you  to  despise  the  man  who 
should  attempt  to  deceive  you.  In  the  sincerity  of  a  soldier,  and  the  lan 
guage  of  truth  I  address  you. 

"  To  every  noble-hearted,  generous  freeman  of  color,  volunteering  to 
serve  during  the  present  contest  with  Great  Britain,  and  no  longer,  there 
will  be  paid  the  same  bounty  in  money  and  lands,  now  received  by  the 
white  soldiers  of  the  United  States,  viz.,  one  hundred  and  twenty-four 
dollars  in  money,  and  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land.  The  non 
commissioned  officers  and  privates  will  also  be  entitled  to  the  same 
monthly  pay  and  daily  rations  and  clothes,  furnished  to  any  American 
soldier. 


1814.]         NICHOLS'    VISIT    RETURNED.  615 

"  On  enrolling  yourselves  in  companies,  the  major  general  commanding 
will  select  officers  for  your  government,  from  your  white  fellow-citizens. 
Your  non-commissioned  officers  will  be  appointed  from  among  yourselves. 

"  Due  regard  will  be  paid  to  the  feelings  of  freemen  and  soldiers.  You 
will  not,  by  being  associated  with  white  men  in  the  same  corps,  be  exposed 
to  improper  comparisons  or  unjust  sarcasm.  As  a  distinct,  independent 
battalion  or  regiment,  pursuing  the  path  of  glory,  you  will,  undivided, 
receive  the  applause  and  gratitude  of  your  countrymen. 

"  To  assure  you  of  the  sincerity  of  my  intentions  and  my  anxiety  to 
engage  your  invaluable  services  to  our  country,  I  have  communicated  my 
wishes  to  the  Governor  of  Louisiana,  who  is  fully  informed  as  to  the  man 
ner  of  enrollment,  and  will  give  you  every  necessary  information  on  the 
subject  of  this  address." 

These  stirring  appeals  fell  upon  no  reluctant  ears.  The 
whole  South  and  West  was  awakening.  Tennessee  was  al 
ready  on  the  march.  Kentucky  was  mustering  her  rifle 
men.  Louisiana  was  getting  ready  to  take  the  field.  Missis 
sippi  was  sending  all  her  forces  to  Mobile.  The  drama 
was  quickening  its  pace.  Jackson  and  the  troops  at  Mobile 
were  burning  with  impatience  to  open  the  next  scene,  for 
which  every  thing  was  in  readiness  except  that  without 
which  no  scene  in  real  or  mimic  war  has  much  effect,  "  the 
army  I" 


CHAPTER      LVII. 

GENERAL  JACKSON   RETURNS   COLONEL   NICHOLS*   VISIT. 

MILITARY  events  succeed  one  another  with  deceptive  ra 
pidity  upon  the  printed  page.  In  truth,  the  chief  employ 
ment  of  a  soldier's  life  is  waiting.  He  waits  half  a  lifetime 
for  the  breaking  out  of  war  ;  consuming  his  years  in  the  dull 
barracks  or  the  solitary  fortress.  He  waits  for  months  after 
the  campaign  opens  for  the  day  to  arrive  which  decides  its  fate 
and  his  own.  Through  the  long  hours  of  the  day  of  battle, 


616  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

he  waits,  comprehending  nothing  of  the  hurly-burly  around 
him,  till  it  comes  his  turn  to  advance  and  be  shot.  He  waits 
— how  long  he  waits  ! — for  his  promotion  ;  waiting  for  dead 
men's  epaulettes.  On  the  parade,  at  the  grand  review,  still 
he  waits  and  waits  for  the  slow  development  of  the  compli 
cated  maneuver.  He  is  a  man  whose  lifetime's  work  is  done 
in  a  few  thrilling  hours  or  minutes,  and  the  rest  of  his  life  is 
a  waiting  for  those  hours  or  minutes  to  come  round. 

After  the  defense  of  Fort  Bowyer,  General  Jackson  had 
to  endure  six  weeks  of  most  intolerable  waiting.  Nothing 
could  be  done  before  the  arrival  of  the  troops  from  Tennessee. 
To  the  tedium  of  delay  was  added  a  torturing  uncertainty 
with  regard  to  the  nature,  the  extent,  the  proximity  of  the 
impending  danger.  The  intelligence  received  through  Lafitte 
had  exasperated  and  roused  the  people  ;  but,  after  all,  the 
Lafitte  documents  gave  little  available  information.  Might 
not  these  be  the  mere  bluster  of  an  ignorant  and  boastful 
officer,  desirous  to  magnify  his  mission  ?  His  puerile  exploits 
at  Mobile  Point,  his  subsequent  inactivity,  the  non-arrival  of 
additional  forces,  seemed  to  favor  the  supposition.  Yet  other 
considerations,  numerous  and  cogent,  weighed  against  it,  and 
kept  all  the  General's  anxiety  alive.  If  a  powerful  expedition 
should  arrive,  which  rumor  with  a  thousand  tongues  foretold, 
to  which  so  many  probabilities  pointed,  New  Orleans  was 
open  to  its  approach,  and  Fort  Bowyer,  with  its  battered 
ramparts  and  cracked  guns,  could  make  but  a  poor  and  brief 
resistance.  It  is  not  surprising  that  during  these  weeks,  the 
chronic  malady  under  which  the  General  suffered  should 
have  given  him  many  a  pang,  and  frequently  laid  him  pros 
trate  for  many  successive  hours.  His  attenuated  form  and 
yellow,  haggard  face  struck  every  one  with  surprise  who  saw 
him  then  for  the  first  time. 

And  what  news  is  this  which  comes,  on  one  of  the  last 
days  of  September,  from  Fort  Jackson,  towards  which  the 
General  was  looking  for  the  arrival  of  the  Tennessee  troops  ? 
Another  mutiny  !  A  revival  of  the  old  dispute  about  the 
length  of  the  term  of  service  !  Two  hundred  men,  of  those 


1814.]  NICHOLS7    VISIT    RETURNED.  617 

who  had  been  called  out  three  months  before  to  garrison  the 
post,  defying  all  authority,  went  off  rioting  and  tumultuous 
toward  home  !  This  mutiny,  occurring  at  such  an  important 
crisis,  at  a  station  that  lay  in  the  path  by  which  the  new 
levies  would  necessarily  march,  kindled  in  Jackson's  breast 
such  rage  and  disgust  as  nothing  could  appease.  He  was 
absent  in  body  from  the  fort,  but  he  soon,  by  his  orders  and 
dispatches,  made  himself  so  powerfully  present  in  spirit,  that 
a  large  number  of  the  deserters,  if  deserters  they  were,  volun 
tarily  returned  to  duty,  for  fear  that  worse  might  befall  them. 
Worse  did  befall  them.  Jackson  resolved  to  prosecute  the 
affair  to  the  utmost.  A  court  martial  was  ordered ;  nearly 
two  hundred  men  were  placed  under  arrest ;  the  trials  pro 
ceeded.  It  will  be  time  enough  to  give  the  particulars  of  this 
mutiny  when  the  course  of  our  narrative  brings  us  to  the 
hideous  tragedy  to  which  it  led.  It  is  mentioned  here,  that 
the  reader  may  know  precisely  when  it  was,  and  in  what  cir 
cumstances  it  was,  that  the  tidings  of  an  outbreak,  so  dan 
gerous  and  formidable,  reached  Jackson's  intensely  excited 
mind. 

On  the  25th  of  November,  came,  at  length,  an  express 
from  General  Coffee,  announcing  his  arrival  on  the  Mobile 
river,  with  an  army  of  twenty-eight  hundred  men.  The  next 
day  Jackson  joined  him  and  took  the  command.  Including 
the  troops  led  by  General  Coffee,  the  garrison  of  Mobile,  a 
body  of  mounted  Mississippians,  and  a  small  number  of  Creek 
Indians,  General  Jackson  found  himself,  by  the  1st  of  No 
vember,  in  command  of  an  army  of  four  thousand  men  ;  of 
whom,  perhaps,  one  thousand  were  troops  of  the  regular 
service.  A  large  proportion  of  the  volunteers,  not  less  than 
fifteen  hundred,  were  mounted.  It  is  mentioned  as  a  signal 
proof  of  their  zeal  in  the  service,  that  they  willingly  left  their 
horses  to  pasture  on  the  Mobile  river,  and  served  as  infantry 
during  the  subsequent  operations  ;  forage  being  scarce  on  the 
way  they  were  next  to  go. 

General  Jackson  had  resolved,  without  waiting  for  any 
further  development  of  the  enemy's  plans,  to  "rout  the  En- 


618  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814 

glish  out  of  Pensacola,"  as  he  was  wont  to  express  it.  The 
press  and  the  people  of  the  southern  States  had  been  clam 
oring  for  this,  with  increasing  vehemence  and  unanimity, 
ever  since  they  had  heard  of  the  landing  of  Colonel  Nichols. 
Jackson  was  nothing  loth.  In  the  whole  range  of  military 
enterprise,  no  expedition  could  have  been  suggested  which  he 
would  have  undertaken  with  so  keen  a  zest  as  a  march  upon 
Pensacola.  If  a  Dante  had  desired  to  invent  a  heaven  for 
Andrew  Jackson  at  this  period  of  his  life,  he  would  have 
had  to  assign  him  an  endless  series  of  Spanish  governors,  to 
whom  he  could  dictate  rasping  letters  ad  libitum,  and  end 
the  controversy  with  each  successive  governor  by  marching 
an  army  of  Tennesseeans  into  his  province,  and  dictating 
terms  of  submission  in  the  streets  of  his  capital.  The 
western  people  generally  shared  this  antipathy.  Governor 
Blount,  in  one  of  his  letters  during  the  Creek  war,  says, 
that  difficult  as  it  was  to  raise  men  for  that  service,  yet  if 
any  thing  were  intended  against  Pensacola,  there  would  be 
no  difficulty  in  mustering  any  number  of  troops  that  might 
be  desired. 

The  treasure-chest  being  empty,  Jackson  was  compelled 
to  purchase  supplies,  partly  with  money  of  his  own,  and 
partly  on  the  credit  of  the  government.  On  the  3d  of  No 
vember,  rations  for  eight  days  having  been  distributed,  he 
marched,  with  three  thousand  men,  unincumbered  with  bag 
gage,  toward  Pensacola,  and  halted,  on  the  evening  of  the 
6th,  within  a  mile  and  a  half  of  the  place. 

Not  less  prudent  than  impetuous  on  great  occasions, 
Jackson  immediately  sent  forward  Major  Piere,  of  the  forty- 
fourth  infantry,  with  a  flag,  to  confer  with  Governor  Maure- 
quez.  He  was  ordered  to  give  a  friendly  and  candid  explana 
tion  of  the  object  of  General  Jackson ;  which  was,  not  to 
make  war  upon  a  neutral  power,  nor  to  injure  the  town,  nor 
needlessly  to  alarm  the  subjects  of  the  Spanish  king ;  but 
merely  to  deprive  the  enemies  of  the  United  States  of  a 
refuge  and  basis  of  offensive  operations.  Major  Piere  was 
also  to  demand  the  immediate  surrender  of  the  forts,  which 


1814.]  NICHOLS7     VISIT     RETURNED.  619 

General  Jackson  pledged  himself  to  hold  only  in  trust,  and 
to  restore  uninjured  as  soon  as  the  present  peril  of  the  Gulf 
ports  was  passed. 

As  the  major  approached  Fort  St.  Michael,  bearing  the 
flag  of  truce,  he  was  fired  upon  ;  upon  which  he  retired,  and 
reported  the  fact  to  the  General.  Jackson  then  rode  forward 
and  discovered,  upon  inspecting  the  fort,  that  it  was  garri 
soned  hoth  by  British  and  Spanish  troops,  though  only  the 
Spanish  ensign  now  floated  from  the  flagstaff.  Ordering  the 
troops  to  bivouac  for  the  night,  he  resolved,  on  the  following 
day.  to  storm  the  town.  Upon  reflecting,  however,  that  the 
firing  upon  the  flag  was  probably  the  work  of  the  English 
part  of  the  garrison,  he  made  another  attempt  in  the  course 
of  the  evening  to  reach  the  governor  and  bring  him  to  terms. 
A  Spanish  corporal  had  been  taken  on  the  march,  to  whom 
Jackson  now  entrusted  a  message  to  the  governor,  asking  an 
explanation  of  the  insult  to  the  flag.  Late  in  the  evening, 
the  corporal  returned  with  a  verbal  communication  from  the 
governor,  to  the  effect  that  he  was  powerless  in  the  hands  of 
the  British,  who  alone  had  been  concerned  in  firing  upon  the 
flag  of  truce,  and  that  he  would  gladly  receive  any  overtures 
the  American  general  might  be  pleased  to  make.  Jackson, 
rejoicing  in  the  prospect  of  a  bloodless  and  speedy  success,  at 
once  dispatched  Major  Piere  again  to  the  town,  who  was  soon 
in  the  governor's  presence,  performing  his  mission.  Jackson 
had  hastily  written  a  letter  to  Maurequez,  summing  up  his 
demands  and  purposes  in  his  brief,  decisive  way.  "  I  come/' 
said  he,  "  not  as  the  enemy  of  Spain  ;  not  to  make  war,  but 
to  ask  for  peace  ;  to  demand  security  for  my  country,  and 
that  respect  to  which  she  is  entitled  and  must  receive.  My 
force  is  sufficient,  and  my  determination  taken,  to  prevent  a 
future  repetition  of  the  injuries  she  has  received.  I  demand, 
therefore,  the  possession  of  the  Barrancas,  and  other  fortifica 
tions,  with  all  your  munitions  of  war.  If  delivered  peaceably, 
the  whole  will  be  receipted  for  and  become  the  subject  of 
future  arrangement  by  our  respective  governments  ;  while 
the  property,  laws,  and  religion  of  your  citizens  shall  be  re- 


620  LIFE     OF     ANDREW    JACKSON.  [1814. 

spected.  But  if  taken  by  an  appeal  to  arms,  let  the  blood 
of  your  subjects  be  upon  your  own  head.  I  will  not  hold 
myself  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  my  enraged  soldiers. 
One  hour  is  given  you  for  deliberation,  when  your  determina 
tion  must  be  had/' 

•The  governor  left  Major  Piere  alone,  and  consulted  with 
his  officers.  He  returned  after  a  short  absence,  and  said,  ap 
parently  with  reluctance,  for  the  man  was  in  a  sore  strait 
between  two,  and  cared  only  for  the  preservation  of  his  town, 
that  the  terms  proposed  by  General  Jackson  could  not  be  ac 
ceded  to.  In  the  small  hours  of  the  morning,  Major  Piere 
returned  to  the  General,  and  reported  the  governor's  answer. 

"  Turn  out  the  troops,"  was  Jackson's  sole  commentary 
upon  the  events  of  the  night. 

An  hour  before  daylight,  the  men  were  under  arms  and 
ready  to  advance.  They  had  slept  upon  the  main  road  lead 
ing  into  the  town  ;  a  road  commanded  by  Fort  St.  Michael, 
and  exposed  to  the  full  force  of  a  cannonade  of  seven  British 
men-of-war  that  lay  at  anchor  in  the  harbor.  But  let  the 
General  himself  state  the  events  of  the  morning  : — 

. "  On  the  morning  of  the  7th/'  he  wrote  to  Governor 
Blount,  a  few  days  after,  "  I  marched  with  the  effective  regu 
lars  of  the  third,  thirty-ninth  and  fourth  infantry,  part  of  Gen 
eral  Coifee's  brigade,  the  Mississippi  dragoons,  and  part  of  the 
West  Tennessee  regiment,  commanded  by  Lieutenant  Colonel 
Hammonds  (Colonel  Lowry  having  deserted  and  gone  home), 
and  part  of  the  Choctaws,  led  by  Major  Blue  of  the  thirty- 
ninth,  and  Major  Kennedy,  of  Mississippi  Territory.  Being 
encamped  on  the  west  of  the  town,  I  calculated  they  would 
expect  the  assault  from  that  quarter,  and  be  prepared  to  rake 
me  from  the  fort,  and  the  British  armed  vessels,  seven  in 
number,  that  lay  in  the  bay.  To  cherish  this  idea,  I  sent  out 
part  of  the  mounted  men  to  show  themselves  on  the  west, 
while  I  passed  in  rear  of  the  fort  undiscovered  to  the  east  of 
the  town.  When  I  appeared  within  a  mile  I  was  in  full  view. 
My  pride  was  never  more  heightened  than  in  viewing  the 
uniform  firmness  of  my  troops,  and  with  what  undaunted 


1814.]  NICHOL/'    VISIT     RETURNED.  621 

courage  they  advanced,  with  a  strong  fort  ready  to  assail  them 
on  the  right ;  seven  armed  vessels  on  the  left ;  strong  block 
houses  and  batteries  of  cannon  in  their  front ;  but  they  still 
advanced  with  unshaken  firmness,  and  entered  the  town, 
when  a  battery  of  two  cannon  was  opened  upon  the  center 
column,  composed  of  regulars,  with  ball  and  grape,  and  a 
shower  of  musketry  from  the  houses  and  gardens.  The  bat 
tery  was  immediately  stormed  by  Captain  Laval  and  his  com 
pany,  and  carried,  and  the  musketry  was  soon  silenced  by  the 
steady  and  well-directed  fire  of  the  regulars." 

In  storming  the  battery,  Captain  Laval  fell  severely 
wounded,  but  the  troops  pressed  forward  into  the  town,  and 
took  a  second  battery  before  the  party  posted  in  it  could  more 
than  three  times  reload.  There  was  still  some  firing  from 
behind  houses  and  garden  walls,  when  the  governor,  in  utter 
consternation,  ran  out  into  the  streets  bearing  a  white  flag  to 
find  the  General.  He  came  up  first  with  Colonel  William 
son  and  Colonel  Smith,  commanding  the  dismounted  troops, 
to  whom  he  addressed  himself  with  faltering  speech,  entreat 
ing  them  to  spare  the  town,  and  promising  to  consent  to 
whatever  terms  the  General  in  command  might  propose. 
Jackson,  who  had  halted  for  a  moment  at  the  spot  where 
Captain  Laval  had  fallen,  soon  rode  up,  and  hearing  what 
had  occurred,  proceeded  to  the  governor's  house,  where  he 
received  in  person  the  assurance  that  all  the  forts  should  be 
instantly  surrendered. 

Hostilities  ceased.  Owing  to  what  General  Jackson  styled 
"  Spanish  treachery,"  but  probably  to  the  confusion  and  be 
wilderment  that  prevailed,  and  the  consequent  misunder 
standing  of  orders  ;  or  perhaps  to  the  irresolution  of  the  gov 
ernor  and  his  desire  to  stand  excused  in  the  eyes  of  his  En 
glish  friends,  the  forts  were  not  instantly  surrendered.  More 
than  once  in  the  course  of  the  day,  Jackson,  exasperated  at 
the  delay,  was  about  to  open  fire  upon  them.  But,  one  by 
one,  the  forts  were  given  up,  and  late  in  the  evening  the  town 
was  fully  his  own. 

The  town,  but  not  the  port, — which  was  far  more  impor- 
VOL.  i. — 40 


LIFE     OF     ANDREW    JACKSON.  [1814. 

tant.  Fort  Barrancas,  six  miles  distant,  which  commanded 
the  mouth  of  the  harbor,  was  in  the  hands  of  the  English, 
and  gave  complete  protection  to  their  fleet.  Maurequez  had 
given  a  written  order  for  its  surrender,  addressed  to  the 
nominal  commandant,  and  Jackson  was  prepared  to  march, 
with  the  dawn  of  the  next  day,  to  receive  it,  if  the  order  were 
obeyed  ;  to  carry  it  by  storm,  if  it  were  not. 

He  was  still  in  hopes  that  by  the  prompt  seizure  of  Fort 
Barrancas  he  could  catch  the  British  fleet  as  in  a  trap,  and 
either  force  it  to  surrender,  or  do  it  terrible  damage  if  it 
should  attempt  to  escape.  But  before  the  dawn  of  day  a 
tremendous  explosion  was  heard  in  the  direction  of  the 
mouth  of  the  harbor.  Then  another  explosion,  not  so  loud  ; 
and,  a  few  seconds  later,  a  third.  There  was  little  doubt 
what  had  occurred.  Early  in  the  morning  a  party  that  was 
sent  out  to  reconnoiter  returned  with  the  intelligence  that 
Fort  Barrancas  was  a  heap  of  ruins,  and  that  the  British 
vessels  had  disappeared  from  the  bay.  Colonel  Nichols,  Cap 
tain  Woodbine,  the  garrison,  and  some  hundreds  of  friendly 
Indians,  had  gone  off  with  the  ships,  leaving  their  friend 
Maurequez  to  settle  it  with  the  American  General  as  best  he 
could. 

It  is  remarkable  that  neither  Nichols  nor  Woodbine, 
nor  their  regimented  Indians,  had  been  seen  in  the  action 
of  the  day  before — much  to  the  surprise  of  the  American 
troops,  who  had  heard  so  much  of  the  redoubtable  "com 
mander  of  his  Majesty's  forces  at  Pensacola."  With  regard 
to  the  Indians,  the  name  of  JACKSON  had  become  such  a 
terror  to  the  southern  tribes  that  probably  no  influence  that 
could  have  been  brought  to  bear  upon  their  minds  could 
have  induced  them  to  stand  in  arms  against  him.  A  striking 
anecdote  related  by  that  benevolent  friend  to  the  Indians, 
Colonel  McHenry,  may  serve  to  illustrate  this.  He  was  sit 
ting  in  his  tent,  on  the  banks  of  the  lower  Mississippi, 
several  years  after  these  events,  when  a  party  of  half- 
drunken  Indians  came  staggering  and  rioting  up  to  his  fire 
before  the  tent. 


1814.]  NICHOLS7     VISIT      RETURNED.  623 

"  One  of  them  passing  on,"  he  says,  "  came  to  the  door  of  my  tent,  and 
pulling  aside  the  curtain,  began  to  reel  in,  with  gestures  of  a  sort  that  in 
timated  his  intention  to  take  possession.  The  light  from  the  fire  made  every 
thing  bright,  almost  as  day.  I  knew  one  side  or  the  other  must  be  master ; 
so  I  ran  my  fingers  through  the  guards  of  two  of  the  pistols,  and  spring 
ing  to  my  feet,  took  him  by  the  neck  and  gave  him  a  shove.  He  lost  his 
balance  and  tumbled  heels  over  head ;  when  the  remaining  five  seizing, 
some  their  knives,  and  some  their  rifles,  made  for  me.  Seeing  my  pistols 
cocked,  and  pointed  in  the  direction  of  the  two  foremost,  a  pause  was  made, 
accompanied  by  silence ;  when  one,  who  had  been  too  drunk  to  come  up 
with  the  rest,  rose  upon  his  feet,  and  stretching  out  his  arm,  and  pointing 
at  me  with  his  finger,  said,  in  a  loud  voice,  'JACKSON!'  That  moment 
knives  were  put  up,  and  rifles  lowered,  and  I  became  the  object  of  a  gen 
eral  gaze.  Shortly  after,  they  all,  in  tolerable  quiet,  left  the  ground.  My 
hair  being  gray,  and  having  grown  unusually  long,  and  it  having  been  al 
ways  my  practice  to  wear  it  thrown  up  from  my  forehead,  this  Indian, 
having  doubtless  seen  G-eneral  Jackson,  and  his  hair  also  being  gray,  and 
worn  after  the  same  fashion,  concluded  that  the  G-eneral  was  sure  enough 
before  him.  He  had  not  only  seen  General  Jackson,  but  was,  there  is 
little  doubt,  acquainted  with  his  manner  of  handling  Indians,  and  thought 
it  best,  therefore,  with  his  comrades,  not  to  place  himself  in  a  situation 
where  the  same  sort  of  treatment  might  be  enacted  over  again." 

Governor  Maurequez,  justly  indignant  at  the  desertion  of 
his  allies,  and  his  faith  in  their  prowess,  which  had  been 
shaken  by  their  defeat  at  Fort  Bowyer,  being  now  com 
pletely  destroyed,  transferred  his  affections  to  General  Jack 
son.  He  was  profuse  in  his  professions  of  friendship  to  the 
General,  and  extolled  highly  the  conduct  of  his  troops,  who 
had  scrupulously  respected  the  property  and  the  feelings  of 
the  inhabitants.  When  the  British  officers  offered,  a  few 
weeks  later,  to  assist  in  rebuilding  Fort  Barrancas,  the  gov 
ernor  is  said  to  have  refused  the  offer,  adding  that  whenever 
he  had  need  of  assistance  he  should  apply  to  his  friend  Gen 
eral  Jackson. 

The  sudden  departure  of  the  British  fleet  was  not  less 
alarming  than  disappointing  to  the  American  General. 
Whither  had  they  gone  ?  The  most  probable  supposition 
was  that  they  were  hastening  away  to  attack  Fort  Bowyer 


624  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

and  capture  Mobile  in  the  absence  of  the  troops  !  To  retain 
Pensacola,  in  the  circumstances,  was  equally  needless  and  im 
possible.  Sending  off  a  dispatch  to  warn  the  garrison  of  Fort 
Bowyer  of  their  danger,  the  General  at  once  prepared  to  evac 
uate  the  town,  and  fly  to  the  defense  of  Mobile.  The  next 
morning  he  was  in  full  march.  Not  a  man  had  been  lost. 
Less  than  twenty  of  the  troops  had  been  wounded,  of  whom 
Captain  Laval  alone  was  obliged  to  be  left  behind  to  the  care 
of  Governor  Maurequez.  The  gallant  captain  received  every 
attention  which  his  situation  required.  He  recovered  from 
his  wound,  and  still  lives,  an  honored  citizen  of  Charleston, 
to  tell  the  story  of  his  own  and  his  General's  exploits. 

This  dash  of  General  Jackson  into  Florida  well  illustrates 
his  audacity  and  promptitude.  Observe  the  dates :  on  the 
3d  of  November  he  left  the  banks  of  the  Mobile.  On  the  6th 
he  reached  Pensacola.  On  the  7th  he  was  master  of  the 
town.  On  the  8th  the  British  took  the  alarm  and  fled. 
On  the  9th  Jackson  set  out  on  his  return.  On  the  llth 
he  was  again  on  the  Mobile,  ready  for  the  reception  of  Colonel 
Nichols. 

When  the  invasion  of  Florida  was  known  at  Washington, 
and  in  the  northern  States,  it  by  no  means  met  with  general 
approval.  The  Federal  papers,  of  course,  denounced  the  act 
as  a  wanton  violation  of  the  soil  of  a  friendly  power,  and  one 
which  was  likely  to  lead  to  an  immediate  declaration  of  war 
on  the  part  of  Spain.  The  Spanish  ambassador  wrote  a 
protesting  dispatch.  The  administration  itself  was  no  doubt 
secretly  displeased  at  having  to  encounter  a  new  danger,  and 
a  new  pretext  of  attack.  The  West,  the  South,  the  Demo 
cratic  party,  and  the  Democratic  press,  sustained  and  ap 
plauded  the  invasion. 

To  discuss  the  right  or  the  wrong  of  so  natural  a  retort  to 
the  attack  on  Fort  Bowyer,  would  be  to  insult  the  under 
standing  of  the  reader.  A  more  right  action  was  never  done 
in  war  than  the  invasion  of  Florida  in  1814.  It  was  plain  to 
every  man  in  the  South,  that  as  long  as  the  British  held  Pen- 


1814.]        NICHOLS'    VISIT    RETURNED.  625 

sacola  and  used  Pensacola  as  their  own,  issuing  from  it  to 
attack,  and  retiring  to  it  to  recruit,  at  their  pleasure,  the 
coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  could  not  be  safe  from  invasion 
for  one  day.  It  was  folly  to  calculate  upon  Fort  Bowyer's 
sustaining  a  second  cannonade.  With  Mobile  in  the  hands 
of  the  enemy,  it  would  require  all  the  little  force  that  Jack 
son  could  hope  to  assemble,  to  overlook  and  hem  him  in 
there  ;  leaving  New  Orleans  defenseless.  And  of  what  avail 
would  it  be  to  defend  New  Orleans,  if  the  mouth  of  the  Mo 
bile  and  its  great  system  of  tributaries,  extending  hundreds 
of  miles  into  the  heart  of  the  country,  were  held  by  an  enemy  ? 
No  :  it  was  a  wise,  it  was  a  necessary  movement ;  and  it  was 
executed  with  as  much  prudence  as  audacity.  Would  that 
all  of  General  Jackson's  audacities  were  equally  susceptible 
of  justification  ! 

Jackson  waited  in  the  vicinity  of  Mobile  for  ten  days  in 
expectation  of  the  arrival  of  Colonel  Nichols.  That  officer 
did  not  appear,  and  from  the  top  of  Fort  Bowyer  no  ap 
proaching  fleet  was  descried.  At  length,  came  intelligence 
that  Nichols,  Woodbine,  and  their  Indians,  had  been  landed 
at  Appalachicola,  where  they  were  fortifying  a  position  in  all 
haste.  Against  them,  Jackson  dispatched  a  body  of  troops 
and  friendly  Creeks,  under  Major  Blue,  who,  after  many  re 
markable  adventures  and  some  severe  fighting,  drove  the  sav 
ages  into  the  interior,  and  Colonel  Nichols  from  the  peninsula. 
He  will  return,  however  ;  and  we  shall  meet  him  there  again, 
a  few  hundred  pages  hence,  little  wiser  for  the  experience  he 
had  had  of  Florida  campaigning. 

General  Jackson,  now  freed  from  apprehension  for  the 
safety  of  Mobile,  could  direct  all  his  thoughts  to  the  defense 
of  New  Orleans.  He  left  Mobile  in  command  of  General 
Winchester  of  the  regular  army.  Fort  Bowyer  was  still  in 
trusted  to  the  brave  Major  Lawrence.  General  Coffee  was 
ordered  to  move  by  easy  marches  towards  New  Orleans  ; 
choosing  the  roads  and  the  course  that  promised  the  best 
forage.  On  the  22d  of  November,  the  General,  without  any 


626  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

escort  but  his  staff,  mounted  horse  and  rode  off  in  the  same 
direction.  He  had  a  journey  before  him  of  a  hundred  and 
seventy  miles,  over  the  roads  of  forty-five  years  ago.  Eiding 
a  little  more  than  seventeen  miles  a  day,  he  arrived  within 
one  short  stage  of  New  Orleans  on  the  1st  of  December. 


1814.]         GENERAL     JACKSON'S    BIRTH-PLACE.  627 


APPENDICE  S. 


GENERAL   JACKSON'S   BIRTH-PLACE. 

THE  following  letter,  received  too  late  for  use  at  the  proper  place,  from 
James  F.  White,  Esq.,  of  Fort  Mills,  York  District,  South  Carolina,  is  can- 
firmatory  of  the  early  part  of  our  narrative.  Mr.  White  is  a  gentleman  of 
the  highest  respectability,  a  very  old  resident  near  the  boundary  line  of  the 
Carolinas.  He  relates  the  recollections  of  an  aunt,  long  since  deceased  : — 

"  I  will  first  give  you  the  age  of  the  old  aunt  spoken  of,  from  a  family 
record.  She  was  born  in  the  year  1756,  being  eleven  years  old  at  the  time 
of  General  Jackson's  birth,  quite  old  enough  to  recollect  perfectly  such  an 
incident  taking  place  at  a  short  distance  from  her  father's  residence.  Major 
Robert  Crawford's  wife  and  she  were  first  cousins ;  at  whose  house,  from 
her  report,  she  frequently  visited.  She  said  that  General  Andrew  Jack 
son  was  born  at  a  place  called  Davis,  in  North  Carolina ;  Davis  might  have 
been  some  original  occupier  of  the  place.  She  said,  that  a  short  time  after 
the  birth  of  her  son,  the  widow  moved  over  to  the  South  Carolina  side. 
She  and  her  children  became  dependent  on  the  charities  of  the  Irish  settlers 
of  the  Waxhaws,  especially  the  Crawfords.  She  said  that  Andrew  Jackson 
attended  a  school,  taught  in  the  Waxhaws,  by  one  Humphreys.  This 
school  broke  up  about  the  time  of  General  Gates'  defeat,  and  was  not 
resumed  again.  At  this  school  General  Jackson  received  his  first  and  last 
Latin  lessons.  Shortly  after  the  close  of  the  war,  General  Jackson  studied 
law  in  Salisbury,  N.  C.,  and,  to  the  best  of  my  recollection,  she  said  that 
he  (Jackson)  commenced  the  practice  of  the  law  at  Charlotte ;  have  no 
recollection  of  hearing  it  said  that  the  General  ever  taught  school.  Never 
heard  of  the  father  of  Jackson  being  a  landholder,  but  believe,  from  the  old 
story  about  the  family  of  Jackson,  they  must  have  been  very  poor,  and  of 
that  class  of  Irish  emigrants,  denominated  thriftless.  My  aunt  persisted  in 
asserting,  to  the  day  of  her  death,  that  General  Jackson  was  born  in  North 
Carolina,  a  short  distance  east  of  the  main  road  leading  from  Lancasterville 


628  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

to  Charlotte,  and  near  where  the  said  road  crosses  Waxhaw  Creek.  I  do 
not  recollect  to  have  ever  heard  my  aunt  speak  of  the  General's  father. 
She  seems  to  have  become  acquainted  with  the  family  about  the  time  of 
the  birth  of  Andrew  Jackson.  From  her  being  acquainted  with  the  removal 
of  Jackson's  mother  to  Waxhaw,  and  that  too,  so  soon  after  the  birth, 
it  is  fair  to  conclude  that  the  father  had  died  before  the  child  was  born. 
This  is  the  sum  of  my  knowledge  of  the  parentage  and  early  life  of  General 
Jackson,  in  the  Waxhaws." 


II. 

EARLY     LAW     PRACTICE     IN     TENNESSEE. 

The  following  extraordinary  advertisement  is  copied  from  a  Tennessee 
paper,  and  is  respectfully  dedicated  to  young  practitioners  at  the  Bar  : 

FIAT     JUSTITIA. 

HAVING  adopted  the  above  motto  as  early  as  I  had  the  honor  of  admis 
sion  to  the  bar,  I  have  covenanted  with  myself  that  I  will  never  knowingly 
depart  from  it,  and  on  this  foundation  I  have  built  a  few  maxims  which 
afford  my  reflections  an  unspeakable  satisfaction  : 

1.  I  will  practice  law  because  it  offers  to  me  opportunities  of  being  a 
more  useful  member  of  society. 

2.  I  will  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  no  man  because  his  purse  is  empty. 

3.  I  will  advise  no  man  beyond  my  comprehension  of  his  cause. 

4.  I  will  bring  none  into  law  who  my  conscience  tells  me  should  be  kept 
out. 

5.  I  will  never  be  unmindful  of  the  cause  of  humanity ;  and  this  com 
prehends  the  widows,  fatherless,  and  those  in  bondage. 

6.  I  will  be  faithful  to  my  client,  but  never  so  unfaithful  to  myself  as  to 
become  a  party  in  his  crime. 

7.  In  criminal  cases  I  will  not  underrate  my  own  abilities ;  for  if  my 
client  proves  a  rascal,  his  money  is  better  in  my  hands;  and  if  not,  I  hold 
the  option. 

8.  I  will  never  acknowledge  the  omnipotence  of  the  Legislature ;    or 
consider  their  acts  to  be  law  beyond  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution. 

9.  No  man's  greatness  shall  elevate  him  above  the  justice  due  to  my 
client. 

10.  I  will  not  consent  to  a  compromise  where  I  conceive  a  verdict  essen- 


1814.]  THE      CREEK      WAR.  629 

tial  to  my  client's  future  reputation  or  protection ;  for  of  this  he  can  not  be 
a  complete  judge. 

11.  I  will  advise  the  turbulent  with  candor,  and  if  they  will  go  to  law 
against  my  advice,  they  must  pardon  me  for  volunteering  it  against  them. 

12.  I  will  acknowledge  every  man's  right  to  manage  his  own  cause  if  he 
pleases. 

The  above  are  my  rules  of  practice,  and  though  I  will  not  (at  any  crit 
ical  juncture)  promise  to  finish  my  business  in  person,  if  the  public  interest 
should  require  my  removal  from  hence,  I  will  do  every  thing  in  my  power 
for  those  who  like  them,  and  endeavor  to  leave  it  in  proper  hands  if  I  should 
be  absent.  WILLIAM  TATHAM. 

KNOXVILLE,  Tenn. 

— Royal  Gazette  and  Bahama  Advertiser,  NASSUA,  NEW  PROVIDENCE, 
May  9th,  1818. 


III. 

THE     CREEK     WAR. 

Statement  of  certain  Tennessee  Volunteers  who  Served  under  Q-eneralJackson 
in  the  Creek  War. 

ON  the  tenth  of  December,  eighteen  hundred  and  twelve,  the  Volun 
teers,  in  pursuance  of  orders  from  General  Jackson,  rendezvoused  at  Nash 
ville,  and  were  mustered  into  the  service  of  the  United  States,  by  Robert 
Hays,  muster  master  or  inspector  of  the  division,  under  whose  direction 
and  inspection,  muster  rolls  were  made  out,  designating  the  date  of  enroll 
ment  or  enlistment,  tenth  of  December,  eighteen  hundred  and  twelve,  with 
the  date  at  which  their  term  of  service  would  expire,  tenth  of  December, 
eighteen  hundred  and  thirteen.  Copies  of  these  rolls  were  furnished  the 
inspectors  and  paymasters,  and  recorded  in  the  company  books  of  each 
captain.  The  acts  of  Congress  of  February  sixth,  eighteen  hundred  and 
twelve,  authorizing  the  President  to  accept  of  fifty  thousand  volunteers,  (of 
which  these  constituted  a  part,)  after  prescribing  the  mode  of  tender,  ac 
ceptance,  etc.,  provides  that  if  they  shall  be  called  into  actual  service,  they 
shall  be  bound  to  continue  m  service  twelve  months  from  the  time  they 
shall  have  arrived  at  the  place  of  rendezvous,  unless  sooner  discharged. 
From  the  provision  in  that  law,  it  was  believed  by  the  whole  detachment, 
that  they  could  not  be  kept  in  service  beyond  the  time  limited  by  the  mus 
ter  rolls,  the  only  written  evidence  of  their  engagement  with  government 


630  LIFE     OF      ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

Under  these  impressions  the  volunteers  descended  the  Mississippi,  and  ar 
rived  at  Washington,  at  which  place  they  were  stationed  until  about  the 
fifteenth  of  March,  eighteen  hundred  and  thirteen,  when  the  General  com 
municated  to  them  an  order  said  by  him  to  have  been  just  then  received 
from  the  War  Department,  of  which  the  following  is  (in  substance)  a  copy  : 

"  WAE  DEPARTMENT,  15th  January,  1813. 

"  The  purposes  for  embodying  and  marching  to  New  Orleans  the  troops 
under  your  command  having  ceased  to  exist,  you  will,  on  the  receipt  of 
this  letter,  dismiss  them  from  public  service  and  take  measures  for  deliver 
ing  over  every  article  of  public  property  in  your  possession  to  Major  Gen- 
eral  Wilkinson.  JOHN  ARMSTRONG." 

The  G-eneral,  for  certain  reasons,  did  not  literally  obey  this  order,  but 
marched  the  detachment  back  to  that  section  of  country  from  which  they 
had  been  taken,  and  after  having  them  regularly  mustered  out  of  service, 
gave  to  each  non-commissioned  officer  and  private  a  certificate  in  the  fol 
lowing  words : 

"  I  certify  that  A.  B.  enrolled  himself  as  a  volunteer  under  the  acts  of 
Congress,  of  February  sixth  and  July  sixth,  eighteen  hundred  and  twelve, 
and  has  served  as  such  under  my  command,  on  a  tour  to  the  Natchez 
country,  from  the  tenth  of  December,  eighteen  hundred  and  twelve,  until 
the  twentieth  of  April,  eighteen  hundred  and  thirteen,  and  is  hereby  dis 
charged. 

"  ANDREW  JACKSON,  Major  General." 

Thus  the  volunteers  thought  themselves  absolved  from  the  obligation 
they  had  come  under  by  their  tender.  This  opinion  was  supported  by  the 
fact,  that  the  arms  which  they  had  received  from  the  government  as  a 
reward  for  their  patriotism,  they  were  permitted  to  carry  with  them  with 
out  any  injunction  not  to  part  from  them ;  and  if  further  evidence  had  been 
necessary  to  satisfy  them  of  the  validity  of  that  certificate,  as  a  complete 
discharge,  the  General's  declarations  on  that  day  were  conclusive,  to  wit  • 
"  The  discharge  was  good  and  complete." 

In  this  belief  the  men  returned  to  their  respective  homes,  not  expecting 
again  to  be  called  on  in  virtue  of  their  former  tender.  In  September  a 
campaign  against  the  Creek  Indians  was  determined  on,  and  the  volunteers 
ordered  again  to  take  the  field.  Whether  this  order  originated  in  Nash 
ville  or  in  Washington  city,  is  a  question  worthy  of  consideration.  In  this 
they  were  told  they  owed  further  service  pursuant  to  their  former  tender 
They  were  also  told,  that  the  Secretary  of  War  had  informed  General 
Jackson  that  they  were  not  discharged,  because  the  power  of  discharging 


1814.]  THE     CREEK     WAR.  631 

was  not  vested  in  him,  nor  had,  as  he  believes,  the  President  that  power, 
until  the  term  of  service  expired.  Notwithstanding  all  this,  there  was  a 
disinclination  to  obey  the  order  of  the  General,  not  only  on  account  of  the 
sacrifice  of  personal  consideration,  but  because  they  had  been  once  dis 
charged,  and  an  attempt  to  bring  them  into  service  again  under  their 
former  tender,  was  an  abuse  of  their  rights.  A  circumstance,  however, 
which  had  taken  place  before  the  issuance  of  this  order,  had  the  greatest 
influence  in  bringing  the  volunteers  to  the  belief  that  they  owed  further 
service.  When  a  committee,  composed  of  volunteer  officers  and  others, 
met  at  Nashville  in  September  last  for  the  purpose  of  devising  the  most 
speedy  and  effectual  means  of  affording  aid  to  the  settlers  on  Mobile  and 
Tombigbee,  a  sub-committee  was  appointed  to  wait  on  General  Jackson 
(then  confined  in  his  bed  in  town)  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  his  opinion 
on  some  particular  points  touching  their  deliberations.  In  the  course  of 
the  conversation,  a  campaign  against  the  Creek  Indians  was  spoken  of  as 
the  most  effectual  way  of  defending  those  settlements,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  United  States  Volunteers  were  named  as  a  desirable  force,  on: 
which  a  question  arose  as  to  the  legality  of  calling  them  out,  having  been 
discharged  from  public  service  by  the  proper  authority.  The  General  re 
plied  to  this,  that  the  Secretary  at  War  had  settled  that  question,  and  pro 
duced  a  letter  purporting  to  have  been  received  from  Mr.  Campbell,  in 
Congress,  stating  the  Secretary  at  War  had  said  the  volunteers  were  not 
discharged,  and  that  neither  he  nor  the  President  had  the  power  of  dis 
charging.  To  this  the  General  added,  that  if  they  had  not  been  discharged, 
they  were  still  in  service  and  entitled  to  pay  for  the  whole  time.  This 
opinion  of  the  General  was  circulated  with  great  industry  by  all  the  offi 
cers,  several  of  whom  were  present,  and  prevailed  on  the  men  to  relinquish 
the  idea  of  having  been  legally  discharged,  and  to  adopt  that  of  being 
bound  for  further  service.  This  latter  opinion  was  the  more  readily 
adopted  when  it  was  recollected  that  the  acts  under  which  they  had 
engaged  placed  them  under  the  same  rules  and  regulations  which  governed 
regular  troops.  The  men  now  began  to  inquire  at  what  time  they  would 
be  entitled  to  a  discharge,  and  from  a  view  of  the  laws  under  which  they 
engaged,  and  the  muster  rolls,  no  other  conclusion  could  be  drawn  but 
that  they  would  be  entitled  to  a  discharge  on  the  tenth  of  December,  eight 
een  hundred  and  thirteen.  From  these  considerations,  and  with  assurances 
from  their  officers  that  they  would  not,  by  any  fair  construction  of  the  law, 
be  kept  longer  than  that  time,  the  men  were  generally  induced  to  enter 
the  field.  Taken  at  this  surprise,  and  precipitated  from  their  homes  with 
only  two  or  three  days'  notice,  they  were  badly  provided  for  a  long  winter 
campaign. 

As  the  tenth  of  December  approached,  they  began  to  speak  of  being 
discharged  on  that  day,  not  in  secret  as  men  about  to  mutiny  would  do, 


632  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

but  publicly,  as  an  indubitable  right.  This  was  communicated  officially  to 
the  General,  who  replied  (in  substance)  that  the  claim  was  founded  in 
error  ;  that  they  had  engaged  to  serve  one  complete  year,  and  denied  ever 
having  discharged  them ;  that  that  year  would  not  be  completed  for  four 
or  five  months  to  come,  and  until  it  was  he  could  not  discharge  them, 
without  express  authority  from  the  President ;  that  he  had  written  to  the 
Governor  of  Tennessee  for  permission  to  discharge  them;  that  if  he  would 
even  hint  at  such  permission,  he  would  obey  it  as  a  command ;  that  so 
soon  as  Colonel  Carroll  arrived  with  reinforcements,  soon  expected  (if  the 
Governor  should  not  have  power  to  discharge,)  he  would  permit  those  who 
were  discontented  to  return  home,  and  concluded  by  declaring  that  if  they 
attempted  to  leave  the  camp  it  should  be  at  the  hazard  of  their  lives.  In 
vain  they  represented  the  time  and  manner  of  their  engagement,  their  dis 
charge  in  April  last,  their  unexpected  and  sudden  call  to  the  field,  their 
naked  situation,  the  deranged  condition  of  their  domestic  affairs,  owing  to 
their  absence  from  home  during  the  last  campaign,  and,  last  of  all,  they 
claimed  to  be  discharged  as  their  right.  The  General  was  reminded  of 
what  he  had  said  on  the  validity  of  their  discharges  at  Columbia.  To  this 
he  replied  with  extreme  intemperance,  and  the  more  they  urged  their 
claim,  the  more  violence  was  opposed  to  it,  until  the  night  of  the  ninth 
December  presented  a  scene  to  be  remembered  only  with  horror  and 
indignation.  The  men  quietly  in  their  camps  between  eight  aud  nine 
o'clock,  p.  M.,  were  ordered  to  form  in  front  of  the  fort  for  the  purpose  of 
being  disarmed  by  the  militia.  After  being  formed,  they  were  insultingly 
charged  by  the  General  with  mutiny,  desertion,  and  many  other  opprobri 
ous  expressions;  he  concluded  by  saying  that  the  flash  of  the  cannon 
should  be  the  signal  of  their  destruction.  It  was  denied  that  the  troops 
were  in  a  state  of  mutiny ;  they  only  asked  an  indulgence  of  their  rights. 
At  this  time  the  militia  were  in  front  of  the  line,  for  the  purpose  of  dis 
arming  the  volunteers,  the  cannon  loaded,  manned,  and  stationed,  under 
the  immediate  direction  of  the  General,  so  as  to  rake  the  line,  and  other 
arrangements  made  to  carry  on  the  work  of  death.  After  the  General  had 
disgorged  his  rage,  he  proposed  their  waiting  the  arrival  of  Major  Searcy 
or  Colonel  Carroll,  as  before  mentioned ;  this  was  assented  to,  and  the 
brigade  dismissed.  On  the  thirteenth,  the  General  addressed  the  volun 
teers  in  a  manner  calculated  to  insult  and  wound  their  feelings,  and  imme 
diately  issued  an  order  to  General  Hall,  commanding  him  to  march  the 
brigade  to  Nashville,  and  there  await  the  orders  of  Governor  Blount  and 
the  President  of  the  United  States.  On  the  fourteenth  the  line  of  march 
was  taken  up,  and  on  the  twenty-fifth  they  arrived  at  Fayetteville,  where, 
by  the  advice  of  the  Governor,  they  were  dismissed  until  further  orders. 

During  the  dispute  between  the  volunteers  and  the  General,  they  be 
haved  with  their  usual  subordination  and  decorum,  having  determined  not 


1814.] 


TREATY     OF     FORT     JACKSON. 


633 


to  disperse  without  an  honorable  discharge.  They  contended  for  this  with 
a  respectful  firmness,  not  to  be  shaken  by  boisterous  threats.  Many  of  the 
officers  advised  the  General  to  use  conciliatory  measures.  They  believed 
that  although  the  men  never  would  relinquish  their  right  to  be  discharged, 
yet  by  proper  management  the  services  of  a  great  part  might  be  continued. 
This  advice  was  treated  as  an  idle  tale,  and  none  but  coercive  measures 
resorted  to.  Under  these  circumstances,  the  men  felt  as  might  be  expected. 
When  they  were  denied,  by  the  arm  of  military  power,  the  exercise  of  a 
right  guaranteed  by  the  laws  and  Constitution  of  the  country,  and  traduced 
for  modestly  and  respectfully  asking  the  indulgence  of  that  right,  they 
could  but  feel  the  indignation  to  be  expected  from  freemen.  They  felt 
mortified  at  leaving  the  service  under  existing  circumstances,  but  a  choice 
of  evils  only  being  left  them,  either  to  go  off  in  the  manner  proposed,  or 
passively  submit  to  an  unqualified  abuse  of  their  best  rights,  they  preferred 
the  former,  believing  that  the  example  of  the  latter,  when  once  set,  would 
gain  strength  with  the  use3  and  be  difficult  to  correct. 

WM.  HALL,  Brig.  Gen.  T.  Y. 

E.  BRADLEY,  C.  C.  1st  R.  T.  Y. 

S.  D.  LAUDERDALE,  Lt.  C.  T.  Y. 

WM.  MARTIN,  Lt.  C.  2d  R.  T.  Y. 

W.  L.  ALEXANDER,  Maj.  1st  R.  T.  Y. 

H.  L.  DOUGLASS,  Capt,  1st  R.  T.  Y., 
and  Aid-de-camp. 

D.  HUMPHREYS,  Brigade  Major. 

R.  ALEXANDER,  Brig.  Q.  Master. 
GALLATIN,  March  4,  1814. 


IV. 


TREATY     OF     FORT     JACKSON. 

Articles  of  Agreement  and  Capitulation  made  and  concluded  this  9th  day  of 
August,  1814,  between  Major  General  Andrew  Jackson,  on  behalf  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States  of  America,  and  the  Chiefs,  Deputies  and 
Warriors  of  the  Creek  Nation. 

Whereas,  an  unprovoked,  inhuman  and  sanguinary  war,  waged  by  the 
hostile  Creeks  against  the  United  States,  hath  been  repelled,  prosecuted  and 
determined  successfully  on  the  part  of  said  States,  in  conformity  with  prin- 


634  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814. 

ciples  of  national  justice  and  honorable  warfare ;  and  whereas,  considera 
tion  is  due  to  the  rectitude  of  proceeding  dictated  by  instructions  relating 
to  the  re  establishment  of  peace ;  be  it  remembered  that,  prior  to  the  con 
quest  of  that  part  of  the  Creek  nation  hostile  to  the  United  States,  num 
berless  aggressions  have  been  committed  against  the  peace,  the  property 
and  the  lives  of  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  those  of  the  Creek  nation 
in  amity  with  her,  at  the  mouth  of  Duck  river,  Fort  Minis  and  elsewhere, 
contrary  to  national  faith,  and  the  regard  due  to  an  article  of  the  treaty 
concluded  at  New  York,  in  the  year  1790,  between  the  two  nations ;  that 
the  United  States,  previous  to  the  perpetration  of  such  outrages,  did,  in 
order  to  insure  future  amity  and  concord  between  the  Creek  nation  and 
the  said  States,  in  conformity  with  the  stipulations  of  former  treaties,  fulfill, 
with  punctuality  and  good  faith,  her  engagements  to  the  said  nation ;  that 
more  than  two  thirds  of  the  whole  number  of  chiefs  and  warriors  of  the 
Creek  nation,  disregarding  the  genuine  spirit  of  existing  treaties,  suffered 
themselves  to  be  instigated  to  violations  of  their  national  honor,  and  the 
respect  due  to  a  part  of  their  own  nation,  faithful  to  the  United  States  and 
the  principles  of  humanity,  by  impostors  denominating  themselves  proph 
ets,  and  by  the  duplicity  and  misrepresentation  of  foreign  emissaries,  whose 
governments  are  at  war,  open  or  understood,  with  the  United  States. 
Wherefore, 

Article  1.  The  United  States  demand  an  equivalent  for  all  expenses 
incurred  in  prosecuting  the  war  to  its  termination,  by  a  cession  of  all  the 
territory  belonging  to  the  Creek  nation  within  the  territories  of  the  United 
States  lying  west,  south  and  south-eastwardly  of  a  line  to  be  run  and  de 
scribed  by  persons  duly  authorized  and  appointed  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  beginning  at  a  point  on  the  easterly  bank  of  the  Coosa 
river,  where  the  south  boundary  line  of  the  Cherokee  nation  crosses  the 
same ;  running  from  thence  down  the  said  Coosa  river,  with  its  eastern 
bank,  according  to  its  various  meanders,  to  a  point  one  mile  above  the 
mouth  of  Cedar  creek,  at  Fort  Williams,  thence  east  two  miles,  thence 
south  two,  thence  west,  to  the  eastern  bank  of  the  said  Coosa  river,  thence 
down  the  eastern  bank  thereof,  according  to  its  various  meanders  to  a  point 
opposite  the  upper  end  of  the  great  falls  (called  by  the  natives  Woetumka), 
thence  east,  from  a  true  meridian  line,  to  a  point  due  north  of  the  Ofucskee, 
thence  south,  by  a  like  meridian  line,  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ofucskee,  on  the 
south  side  of  the  Tallapoosa  river,  thence  up  the  same,  according  to  its  vari 
ous  meanders,  to  a  point  where  a  direct  course  will  cross  the  same,  at  the 
distance  of  ten  miles  from  the  mouth  thereof;  thence  a  direct  line  to  the 
mouth  of  Summochico  creek,  which  empties  into  the  Chatahouchie  river  on 
the  east  side  thereof,  below  the  Eufaulan  town  ;  thence  east,  from  a  true 
meridian  line,  to  a  point  which  shall  intersect  the  line  now  dividing  the 
lands  claimed  by  the  said  Creek  nation  from  those  claimed  and  owned  by 


1814]  TREATY     OF     FORT     JACKSON.  635 

the  State  of  Georgia :  provided,  nevertheless,  that  where  any  possession  of 
any  chief  or  warrior  of  the  Creek  nation,  who  shall  have  been  friendly  to 
the  United  States  during  the  war,  and  taken  an  active  part  therein,  shall 
be  within  the  territory  ceded  by  these  articles  to  the  United  States,  every 
such  person  shall  be  entitled  to  a  reservation  of  land  within  the  said  terri 
tory,  of  one  mile  square,  to  include  his  improvements,  as  near  the  center 
thereof  as  may  be,  which  shall  inure  to  the  said  chief  or  warrior,  and  his 
descendants,  so  long  as  he  or  they  shall  continue  to  occupy  the  same,  who 
shall  be  protected  by  and  subject  to  the  laws  of  the  United  States;  but 
upon  the  voluntary  abandonment  thereof,  by  such  possessor  or  his  descend 
ants,  the  right  of  occupancy  or  possession  of  said  lands  shall  devolve  to 
the  United  States,  and  be  identified  with  the  right  of  property  ceded 
hereby. 

Article  2.  The  United  States  will  guarantee  to  the  Creek  nation  the  in 
tegrity  of  all  their  territory  eastwardly  and  northwardly  of  the  said  line, 
to  be  run  and  described  as  mentioned  in  the  first  article. 

Article  3.  The  United  States  demand  that  the  Creek  nation  abandon 
all  communication  and  cease  to  hold  any  intercourse  with  any  British  or 
Spanish  post,  garrison,  or  town ;  and  that  they  shall  not  admit  among  them 
any  agent  or  trader,  who  shall  not  derive  authority  to  hold  commercial,  or 
other  intercourse  with  them,  by  license  from  the  President  or  authorized 
agent  of  the  United  States. 

Article  4.  The  United  States  demand  an  acknowledgment  of  the  right 
to  establish  military  posts  and  trading  houses  and  to  open  roads  within  the 
territory  guarantied  to  the  Creek  nation  by  the  second  article,  and  a  right 
to  the  free  navigation  of  all  its  waters. 

Article  5.  The  United  States  demand,  that  a  surrender  be  immediately 
made,  of  all  the  persons  and  property  taken  from  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  the  friendly  part  of  the  Creek  nation,  the  Cherokee,  Chickasaw,  and 
Choctaw  nations  to  the  respective  owners ;  and  the  United  States  will 
cause  to  be  immediately  restored  to  the  formerly  hostile  Creeks,  all  prop 
erty  taken  from  them  since  their  submission,  either  by  the  United  States, 
or  by  any  Indian  nation  in  amity  with  the  United  States,  together  with  all 
the  prisoners  taken  from  them  during  the  war. 

Article  6.  The  United  States  demand  the  caption  and  surrender  of  all 
the  prophets  and  instigators  of  the  war,  whether  foreigners  or  natives,  who 
have  not  submitted  to  the  arms  of  the  United  States,  and  become  parties 
to  these  articles  of  capitulation,  if  ever  they  shall  be  found  within  the  ter 
ritory  guarantied  to  the  Creek  nation  by  the  second  article. 

Article  7.  The  Creek  nation  being  reduced  to  extreme  want,  and  not  at 
present  having  the  means  of  subsistence,  the  United  States,  from  motives 
of  humanity,  will  continue  to  furnish,  gratuitously,  the  necessaries  of  life 
until  the  crops  of  corn  can  be  considered  competent  to  yield  the  nation  a 


636  LIFE     OF     ANDREW     JACKSON.  [1814 

supply,  and  will  establish  trading  houses  in  the  nation,  at  the  discretion  of 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  at  such  places  as  he  shall  direct, 
to  enable  the  nation,  by  industry  and  economy,  to  procure  clothing. 

Article  8.  A  permanent  peace  shall  ensue  from  the  date  of  these  pres 
ents,  for  ever,  between  the  Creek  nation  and  the  United  States,  and  be 
tween  the  Creek  nation  and  the  Cherokee,  Chickasaw,  and  Choctaw  nations. 

Article  9.  If  in  running  east  from  the  mouth  of  Summochico  creek,  it 
shall  so  happen  that  the  settlement  of  the  Kinnards  fall  within  the  lines  of 
the  territory  hereby  ceded,  then,  and  in  that  case,  the  line  shall  be  run  east 
in  a  true  meridian,  to  Kitchofoonee  creek,  thence  down  the  middle  of  said 
creek  to  its  junction  with  Flint  river,  immediately  below  the  Oakmulgee, 
town,  thence  up  the  middle  of  Flint  river,  to  a  point  due  east  of  that  at 
which  the  above  line  struck  the  Kitchofoonee  creek,  thence  east  to  the  old 
line  hereinbefore  mentioned ;  to  wit,  the  line  dividing  the  lands  claimed  by 
the  Creek  nation  from  those  claimed  and  owned  by  the  State  of  Georgia. 

The  parties  to  these  presents,  after  due  consideration  for  themselves 
and  their  constituents,  agree  to  ratify  and  confirm  the  preceding  articles, 
and  constitute  them  the  basis  of  a  permanent  peace  between  the  two  na 
tions  ;  and  they  do  hereby  solemnly  bind  themselves,  and  all  the  parties 
concerned  and  interested,  to  a  faithful  performance  of  every  stipulation 
contained  therein.* 

*  Indian  Treaties.    Washington,  1826,  p.  207. 


END  OF  VOL.  I. 


THIS    BOOK    IS    DUE   ON    THE    LAST    DATE 
STAMPED   BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN  THIS  BOOK 
ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY  WILL  INCREASE  TO 
50  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH  DAY  AND  TO  $1.00  ON  THE 
SEVENTH  DAY  OVERDUE. 


JAN  2  6  «66 
RET.  JAN  2  R  19§j 

MflSS 
APR 


LCD 


1966 


,;,- 
APR     7  1 


SEC  8     196S 


E  JUN  1  4  1975 
MAY  6   RffifD 


HE1  Li 


196 


Book  Slip-20w-7)'5ti(C7G9s4) 


164541 


